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ONE   THOUSAND 
HOMELESS   MEN 

A  STUDY  OF  ORIGINAL  RECORDS 

BY 

ALICE  WILLARD  SOLENBERGER 


NEW    YORK 

CHARITIES    PUBLICATION 
COMMITTEE    .  .    MCMXI 


Copyright,  191 1,  by 
THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


PRESS    OF    WM.    F.    FELL   CO. 
PHILADELPHIA 


DEDICATED 

TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS  OF  THE 
CENTRAL  DISTRICT,  CHICAGO  BUREAU  OF  CHARITIES, 
WHO  SERVED  DURING  THE  YEARS  IQOO  TO  1904,  AND 
WHOSE  INTEREST  AND  STEADFAST  SUPPORT  MADE  POS- 
SIBLE MUCH  OF  THE  WORK  DESCRIBED  IN  THIS  VOLUME 


M103866 


FOREWORD 

THE  untimely  death  of  Mrs.  Solenberger  in 
December,  1910,  after  she  had  practically 
completed  this  work,  but  before  it  was  ready 
for  the  press,  has  made  a  Foreword  seem  necessary. 
It  had  been  Mrs.  Solenberger's  intention  to  write 
a  preface  and  to  add  one  more  chapter  summing 
up  her  conclusions.  Since  she  was  not  able  to 
do  these  final  things,  it  is  left  for  another  to  tell 
briefly  the  circumstances  that  led  to  the  study  here- 
in presented,  and  to  indicate  the  probable  message 
of  the  unwritten  last  chapter. 

In  1900  Mrs.  Solenberger  (then  Miss  Willard) 
was  given  charge  of  the  Central  District  of  the 
Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities.  The  territory  in 
the  South  Side  of  the  city  which  it  covered  in- 
cluded within  its  borders  what  is  called  the  "loop 
district"  and  the  very  important  lodging  house 
section  that  lies  just  beyond  it.  The  general 
office  of  the  Bureau,  which  was  situated  within 
the  loop,  referred  all  homeless  applicants  to  the 
Central  District  office,  as  did  later  the  four  other 
South  Side  districts.  For  these  reasons  about  one- 
third  of  the  applicants  dealt  with  at  the  Central 
District  office  were  homeless  men.  Mrs.  Solen- 
berger found  that  they  were  being  treated  in  an 

vii 


FOREWORD 

inadequate  manner.  Accepting  the  conditions  in 
the  district  as  they  were,  she,  with  her  associates, 
gradually  evolved  a  new  plan  of  treatment  of  the 
men.  This  consisted  in  applying  to  them  the 
methods,  with  certain  adaptations,  used  in  the 
investigation  and  treatment  of  families.  These 
methods  became  the  practice  of  the  office.  Such 
was  the  genesis  of  this  study. 

It  was  in  no  superficial  way  that  Mrs.  Solen- 
berger  undertook  her  responsibility.  Intensively 
and  extensively  it  led  her  on  until  she  had  at  her 
command  all  the  remarkable  data  contained  in 
this  book.  During  the  first  three  strenuous  years 
not  much  was  thought  of  beyond  the  way  to  in- 
crease the  efficiency  of  the  work.  Not  only  did 
this  mean  greater  care,  greater  skill,  greater 
sympathy  in  dealing  with  applicants,  but  an  ever 
enlarging  knowledge  of  conditions  in  that  sordid, 
dirty,  and  unpleasant  South  Side  lodging  house 
neighborhood, — a  neighborhood  possessing,  how- 
ever, a  curiously  quickening  and  vibrant  atmos- 
phere for  those  who,  like  Mrs.  Solenberger,  really 
knew  it.  Here  and  there,  scattered  throughout 
this  book  are  references  to  volunteered  clues  not 
only  from  the  police,  but  from  lodging  house 
keepers  and  guests,  which  resulted  time  and 
time  again  in  assistance  that  enabled  her  to 
trace  men  and  boys  and  to  learn  the  whole 
unvarnished  truth  about  them  when  that  truth 
vitally  affected  treatment.  Her  very  quests,  the 
splendid  spirit  of  her  work, — intelligent,  not  to 

viii 


FOREWORD 

be  hoodwinked,  but  human,  natural,  and  dis- 
cerning,— promoted  a  mutual  understanding,  fail- 
ing which  no  one  may  hope  to  get  very  far  with 
that  most  elusive  and  impulsive  creature,  the  home- 
less man.  Indeed,  Mrs.  Solenberger's  point  of 
view  in  dealing  with  the  men  themselves  has  been 
so  fundamentally  subjective  that  her  account  of 
lodging  house  conditions,  partly  drawn  from  visits 
with  health  officials  later,  does  not  seem  to  belong 
to  the  main  body  of  the  study,  and  will  be  found 
in  a  separate  chapter  in  the  Appendix.  Valuable 
as  it  is,  it  is  not  a  part  of  Mrs.  Solenberger's 
peculiar  and  unique  contribution  to  the  subject  of 
homeless  men.  Others  could  have  performed  this 
service;  no  one  else  is  yet  equipped  to  give  us  the 
far  more  significant  message. 

How  soon  Mrs.  Solenberger  herself  realized  the 
values  of  the  gradually  accumulating  knowledge 
whose  written  record  lay  in  the  case  histories  in 
her  district  office,  no  one  can  say.  The  writer's 
recollection  is  that  as  early  as  the  autumn  of  1902 
she  was  seeking  advice  in  the  preparation  of 
tentative  schedules  for  this  study.  Then,  as  well 
as  later,  she  regretted  that  she  did  not  know  at  the 
beginning  of  her  work  what  she  could  learn  only 
from  experience;  namely,  the  importance  of 
certain  lines  of  inquiry  in  connection  with  home- 
less men,  not  alone  for  purposes  of  social  investiga- 
tion but  for  better  constructive  work.  She  has 
frankly  indicated  in  the  text  where  the  absence  of 
such  knowledge  in  certain  instances  has  reduced 

ix 


FOREWORD 

the  significance  of  her  conclusions.  Nevertheless 
there  may  be  an  indirect  benefit  in  the  limitations 
of  these  earlier  days.  For,  take  it  in  the  large,  the 
amount  of  constructive  work  done  for  homeless 
men  from  one  end  of  these  four  years  to  the  other, 
—a  work  based  merely  upon  knowledge  and  in- 
sight,— is  so  far  ahead  of  that  performed  by  many 
similar  agencies  whose  equipment  is  perhaps 
greater,  that  it  is  worth  while  to  be  able  to  assert 
that  only  an  ordinary  desire  efficiently  to  perform 
the  task  at  hand  supplied  the  impetus,  and  an 
ordinary  district  staff  provided  the  equipment. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  work  there  was  no  long 
look  ahead  to  its  possible  uses  as  a  study  and  in- 
terpretation. 

From  Mrs.  Solenberger's  retirement  from  the 
Central  District  in  1903  to  this  year  of  grace  1911 
may  appear  to  some  a  long  lapse  of  time.  But 
her  contribution  to  her  subject  was  steadily 
growing  in  these  years;  no  year  was  wasted. 
During  them,  among  other  things,  the  subsequent 
careers  of  many  of  these  men  and  boys  have  been 
traced,  and  the  results  of  different  kinds  of  treat- 
ment in  permanency  of  improvement  or  the  re- 
verse, have  been  clearly  revealed.  To  have  ac- 
cepted as  final  the  knowledge  of  these  men's  lives 
as  they  stood  at  the  end  of  1904  or  1905  or  1906, 
would  in  many  instances  have  considerably  in- 
creased the  margin  of  possible  error. 

Then  again,  there  has  been  the  steady,  intensive 
work  of  drawing  out  of  the  silent,  pregnant  records 


FOREWORD 

the  wealth  of  human  illustration,  which  so  vividly 
backgrounds  and  justifies  Mrs.  Solenberger's  more 
general  statements  based  upon  the  statistical 
analyses.  And  through  it  all  has  been  the  steady 
persistent  purpose  to  read  into  the  records  of  these 
men  only  that  which  could  be  read  into  them,  the 
critical  scrutiny,  almost  as  if  by  another,  of  each 
statement,  to  test  whether  it  was  exaggerated  or 
was  securely  and  properly  based. 

Turning  now  to  a  more  detailed  consideration 
of  Mrs.  Solenberger's  methods,  it  should  be  said 
that  she  applied  herself  to  her  task  with  but  one 
preconceived  idea  and  one  prejudice.  She  be- 
lieved that  the  personality-by-personality  method 
of  the  chanty  organization  movement  had  been  too 
little  used  with  homeless  men  and  boys,  and  that 
until  we  employ  this  method  with  them,  neither 
our  theories  regarding  vagrancy  nor  our  efforts  to 
reduce  it  will  be  based  upon  a  solid  foundation  of 
knowledge.  Our  social  responsibilities  toward  in- 
dividual wanderers  and  toward  the  families  from 
which  they  come,  will  also  remain  unfulfilled. 
The  writer  distinctly  remembers  that  Mrs.  Solen- 
berger  early  indicated  this  principle  as  the  central 
purpose  of  her  study.  She  had  no  thesis  to  prove; 
her  discriminating  analysis  of  facts  reveals  this 
again  and  again.  But  she  marshalled  these  facts 
so  as  clearly  to  show  that  the  homeless  man  prob- 
lem could  in  no  way  be  treated  differently  from 
the  problem  of  the  family.  Certain  factors,  it  is 
true,  peculiar  to  these  men  require  attention. 

xi 


FOREWORD 

Mrs.  Solenberger  has  recognized  these  at  their  full 
value.  For  instance,  she  has  by  no  means  mini- 
mized the  far-reaching  results  that  will  flow  from 
the  closing  of  the  railroads  to  the  brake  beam  or 
freight  car  dead-head.  Nor  has  she  minimized 
the  need  of  inter-state  agreements  if  no  inter-state 
law  be  possible,  to  prevent  "passing-on."  On  the 
other  hand,  she  has  shown  us  through  the  bio- 
graphies of  these  very  real  men  and  boys,  how 
interwoven  into  them  are  all  the  social  and  indi- 
vidual causes  of  deterioration  which  are  found  in 
the  family  itself.  Because  the  same  moving  forces 
exist  among  men,  the  same  method  must  be  used, 
though  naturally  with  some  variations  and  some 
additional  agencies.  How  strikingly  she  reveals 
the  blameworthy  principle  upon  which  some  way- 
farer's lodges  and  woodyards  are  run,  the  principle 
of  assuming  that  when  a  youth  or  a  man  is  given 
and  accepts  work  (made  for  him)  that  there  the 
agency's  responsibility  ends.  Here  we  learn  the 
bitter  lesson  that  activities  like  these  are  encourag- 
ing some  men  to  break  still  further  away  from  the 
responsibilities  to  which  they  should  return.  In 
so  far  as  no  reputable  charity  organization  society 
would  consider  that  it  had  dealt  adequately  with 
a  family  by  giving  the  man  work  and  going  no 
deeper  beneath  the  surface  of  his  need,  just  so  far 
should  it  and  every  other  agency  dealing  with 
homeless  men  consider  that  they  have  failed,  when 
they  do  this  and  nothing  more  for  the  wanderer. 
For  in  this  last  case  the  improbability  that  mere 

xii 


FOREWORD 

work  will  be  a  means  of  the  wanderer's  rehabilita- 
tion, is  indicated  by  the  very  homelessness  of  his 
condition. 

It  is  altogether  probable  that  some  such  purport 
expressed  in  much  more  felicitous  phrase  would 
have  been  Mrs.  Solenberger's  message  in  the  sum- 
ming-up chapter  never  written. 

The  genesis  and  the  message  have  been  given. 
A  word  as  to  the  scope.  One  thousand  records 
of  homeless  men  have  been  carefully  analyzed  for 
all  that  they  have  to  show  as  to  the  causes  of 
homelessness,  the  characteristics  of  the  homeless, 
their  individual  treatment,  their  environment, 
and  the  social  remedies.  In  addition,  certain 
broad  questions  touching  the  problem  of  all  the 
homeless  are  treated  sometimes  with  sidelights 
from  sources  other  than  the  author's  own  exper- 
ience, but  at  no  time  without  illustration.from  this 
particular  regiment. 

Among  Mrs.  Solenberger's  papers  were  found 
rough  drafts  of  two  paragraphs  which  she  evi- 
dently intended  to  include  in  a  preface,  and  which 
are  given  with  slight  annotations: 

"The  writer  acknowledges  valuable  advice  and 
assistance  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume  re- 
ceived from  Mr.  Francis  H.  McLean,  Field  Secre- 
tary, Chanty  Organization  Department,  Russell 
Sage  Foundation;  Mr.  James  Mullenbach,  Super- 
intendent Chicago  Municipal  Lodging  House  (now 
Assistant  Superintendent  United  Charities  of 
Chicago);  Dr.  William  A.  Evans,  Commissioner 

xiii 


FOREWORD 

of  Health  of  Chicago  (1910);  Mr.  William  C.  Ball, 
Chief  Sanitary  Inspector,  Chicago  Health  Depart- 
ment; Dr.  Adolf  Meyer,  Professor  of  Psychiatry, 
Johns  Hopkins  University;  Dr.  V.  H.  Podstata, 
Superintendent  (1909)  Illinois  Northern  Hospital 
for  the  Insane,  Elgin,  Illinois;  Dr.  O.  C.  Wilhite, 
General  Superintendent  (1909)  Cook  County 
Institution,  Dunning,  Illinois;  Mr.  John  Koren, 
Expert  Special  Agent,  United  States  Census;  and 
many  others  to  whom  she  wishes  to  extend  thanks. 

"A  very  large  amount  of  help  has  also  been  given 
by  the  charity  organization  societies  and  associated 
charities  of  cities  from  one  end  of  the  country  to 
the  other.  The  writer  is  especially  grateful  to  the 
secretaries  and  agents  of  these  societies  who  with 
invariable  courtesy  and  promptness  have  upon 
request  made  recent  investigations  and  reported 
all  that  could  be  learned  at  the  present  time  re- 
garding some  five  hundred  of  the  one  thousand 
men  whose  cases  are  here  considered.  Without 
this  help  given  by  more  than  fifty  different  Amer- 
ican and  Canadian  societies  many  of  the  facts  pre- 
sented in  this  study  could  not  have  been  secured." 

It  is  difficult  adequately  to  value  Mrs.  Solen- 
berger's  work.  Consciously  limited  as  it  is  in 
scope,  it  is  accurate  in  that  field.  It  portrays 
clearly  where  society  has  failed,  where  the  indi- 
vidual has  failed.  Inevitably,  further  light  must 
alter  or  amend  some  of  her  conclusions,  but  this 
light  must  come  from  studies  as  intensive,  as  pains- 
takingly accurate  as  hers.  The  book  is  alike  valu- 

xiv 


FOREWORD 

able  to  him  who  has  realized  the  problem  and  to  him 
who  has  not.  It  should  develop  a  discerning  interest 
among  those  who  have  scarcely  thought  of  the 
homeless  man.  It  should  serve  as  a  most  useful 
guide  for  any  one  who  is  seeking  to  further  by 
whatever  means  a  more  normal  life  for  these 
wandering  atoms  of  society.  Offering  no  general 
panacea,  Mrs.  Solenberger  has  yet  indicated  varied 
ways  in  which  progress  lies.  Her  work  speaks 
with  the  convincing  and  compelling  power  of 
truth. 

FRANCIS  H.  McLEAN 


xv 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FOREWORD,  by  Francis  H.  McLean  vii 

LIST  OF  TABLES xix 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS xxiv 

I.  Introductory i 

II.  Method  of  This  Investigation      .  14 

III.  Physical  Condition  of  Homeless  Men .       .  32 

IV.  The  Crippled  and  Maimed  ....  44 
V.  Industrial  Accidents  in  Relation  to  Vag- 
rancy      69 

VI.  The  Insane,  Feeble-minded,  and  Epileptic.       88 

VII.  Homeless  Old  Men 112 

VIII.  Occupations  of  the  Men       .       .       .       .129 
IX.  Seasonal  and  Casual  Labor  .       .       .       .139 

X.  Chronic  Beggars 156 

XI.  The  Interstate  Migration  of  Paupers  and 

Dependents 189 

XII.  Confirmed  Wanderers  or  "Tramps"  .       .     209 
XIII.  Homeless,  Vagrant  and  Runaway  Boys     .     239 

APPENDICES 

A.  SUPPLEMENTARY  TABLES 277 

B.  THE  CHEAP  LODGING  HOUSES  .       .       .       -314 

C.  HOMELESS  MEN  IN  MINNEAPOLIS    .       .       .     330 

xvii 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

D.  ORDINANCE  REGULATING  LODGING  HOUSES  IN 

MINNEAPOLIS 335 

E.  REGULATIONS  GOVERNING  SANITARY  CONDI- 

TIONS IN  LODGING  HOUSES,  ADOPTED  BY 
THE  MINNESOTA  STATE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH, 
JANUARY  n,  1910 342 


xvm 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE  PACE 

1.  General    Data  Concerning    1000   Homeless 

Men      .  .20 

A.  Ages,  by  Groups 

B.  Nativity 

C.  Conjugal  Condition 

D.  Amount  of  Education 

1 1 .  Defects  and  Diseases  Among  627  Men         .       36 

III.  General    Data    Concerning   86   Men  Crip- 

pled by  Disease  ...  46 

A.  Ages,  by  Groups 

B.  Causes  of  Crippling 

C.  Amount  of  Self-support 

IV.  Causes  of  Crippling  (excluding  cases  where 

it  was  caused  by  illness  or  where  men 
claimed  industrial  accidents)    ...       50 

V.  General  Data  Concerning  55  Men  Claiming 

Industrial  Accidents 78 

A.  Number  Injured,  by  Condition 

B.  Amount  of  Self-support   Before  and 

After  Injury 

C.  Amount  of  Self-support   Before  and 

After  Injury — By  Condition 

VI.  General  Data  Concerning  89  Insane,  Feeble- 
minded, and  Epileptic  Men      .  .       90 

A.  Nativity 

B.  Amount  of  Self-support 

C.  Confirmed  Habits  of  65  of  These  Men 

D.  Length  of  Time  Known  to  the  Office 

xix 


LIST   OF   TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

VIII.  General  Data  Concerning  132  Homeless  Old 

Men 114 

A.  Ages,  by  Groups 

B.  Nativity 

C.  Occupations 

D.  Amount  of  Self-support  at  Time  of 

Application 
IX.  General    Data    Concerning     135    Chronic 

Beggars 164 

A.  Ages,  by  Groups 

B.  Conjugal  Condition 

C.  Nativity 

D.  Previous  Occupations 

X.  General  Data  Concerning  220  Tramps      .     216 

A.  Ages,  by  Groups 

B.  Conjugal  Condition 

C.  Nativity 

D.  Amount  of  Self-support 

E.  Verification  of  Stories 

XI.  General  Data  Concerning   117   Homeless, 

Vagrant,  and  Runaway  Boys  .       .       .     240 

A.  Ages 

B.  Nativity 

C.  Occupations 

D.  Physical  and  Mental  Condition 

APPENDIX  A 

1.  One    Thousand    Homeless    Men.    Conjugal 

Condition — By  Age  Group          .       .       .     277 

2.  One   Thousand    Homeless    Men.     Length   of 

Time  in  the  City   Before  Application  to 
Bureau 277 

3.  College  Men.    Conjugal,  Physical,  and  Men- 

tal Condition,  Habits,  and  Occupations.— 
By  Nationality 278 

4.  Data  on  Special  Groups  of  Diseases  and  De- 

fects          279 

xx 


LIST   OF   TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

5.  Tuberculous    Men.     Nationality,    Conjugal 

Condition,  and  Occupation. — By  Age  Group  280 

6.  Blind  and  Deaf  Men.    Amount  of  Self-support 

Before  and  After  Injury. — By  Condition    .     281 

7.  Men  Crippled  by  Disease. — By  Causes  and  Age 

Group 282 

8.  Men  Crippled  by  Disease.    Amount  of  Self- 

support  Before  and  After  Injury. — By  Con- 
dition   283 

9.  Men  Crippled  Through  General  Accident  or 

From  Birth.  Amount  of  Self-support  Before 
and  After  Injury. — By  Length  of  Time 
Since  Accident 284 

10.  Men  Permanently  Crippled  Through  General 
Accident  or  From  Birth.  Amount  of  Self- 
support  Before  and  After  Injury. — By  Con- 
dition   285 

n.  Men  Who  Claimed  Industrial  Accidents.  Oc- 
cupations Before  and  After  Injury  .  .  286 

12.  Men    Who    Claimed     Industrial    Accidents. 

Amount  of  Self-support  Before  and  After  In- 
jury.— By  Length  of  Time  Since  Accident  .  287 

13.  Thirty-two   Permanently   Injured   Men  Who 

Claimed  Industrial  Accidents.  Amount  of 
Self-support  Before  and  After  Injury. — By 
Condition 288 

14.  Brief  Digest  of  Cases  of  17  Men  Permanently 

Injured  in  Actual  and  Probable  Industrial 
Accidents 289 

15.  Insane,  Feeble-minded,    and    Epileptic   Men. 

Legal  Residence 290 

1 6.  Forty-eight   Insane,  Feeble-minded,  and  Epi- 

leptic Men.     Additional  Handicaps   .       .291 

17.  Insane  Men.    Trades  and  Occupations  .       .     291 

1 8.  Homeless  Old  Men. — By  Conjugal  Condition 

and  Willingness  and  Ability  of  Children  to 

Aid  Them 292 

xxi 


LIST   OF   TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

19.  Occupations   of   91    Men    Skilled   or    Partly 

Skilled  in  More  Than  One  Line  of  Work      .     293 

20.  Occupations  of  the  1000  Homeless  Men         .     295 

A.  Professional  Men 295 

B.  Business  Men,  etc 295 

C.  Clerical  Workers  and  Salesmen     .       .     295 

D.  Skilled  Workers 295 

E.  Partly  Skilled  ....  .297 

F.  Miscellaneous 297 

G.  Unskilled 298 

H.  No  Work  Record     .  .     298 

I.    Work  Record  Not  Known     .       .       .     298 

21.  Number  and  Kinds  of  Applications  Made  by 

the  looo  Homeless  Men  and  the  135  Chronic 
Beggars 299 

22.  Chronic  Beggars.     Physical  and  Mental  Con- 

dition        300 

23.  Occupations  Once  Followed  by  Chronic  Beg- 

gars of  Class  II 300 

24.  Brief  Digests  of  Cases  of  the  1 1   Beggars  of 

Class  III 301 

25.  Brief  Digests  of  Cases  of  16  of  the  Beggars  of 

Class  IV 302 

26.  Physical  and  Mental  Condition  of  the  Tramps     304 

27.  Location  (Urban  or  Country)  of  Previous  Resi- 

dence, Character  of  Homes,  and  Family  Re- 
lations of  63  Runaway  Boys  ....     304 

A.  Location  of  Home  (City  or  Country)     .     304 

B.  Character  of  Homes        .       .       .       .305 

C.  Family  Relations  of  Homeless,  Vagrant 

and  Runaway  Boys     .       .       .       .305 

28.  General  Data  Concerning  200  Minneapolis 

Homeless  Men 306 

29.  Occupations  of  Homeless  Men  in  Chicago 

and    Minneapolis    compared     .       .       .     307 
xxii 


LIST  OF  TABLES 

TABLE  PAGE 

30.  Minneapolis  Homeless  Men.    Physical  and 

Mental    Condition 308 

31.  Minneapolis    Homeless    Men.    Trades  and 

Occupations 309 

32.  Minneapolis       Homeless      Men.         Eleven 

Industrial  Accident  Cases  .       .       .       .310 

33.  Minneapolis    Homeless    Men.     Twenty-two 

Deformed,  Injured,  Crippled,  and  Mained    312 


XXill 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

(Eight  full-page  illustrations  preceding  Appendix  B,  p.  314) 

A  ROOM  IN  ONE  OF  THE  "  IRONSIDES" 

Room  6  by  7  feet  high,  one  of  few  having  outer  air  and 
light.  Wire  netting  above,  supplemented  by  newspapers. 
Sides  of  corrugated  iron. 

CUBICLE  LODGING  HOUSE 

Third  floor.  Main  aisle,  showing  cross  aisle  at  end  lead- 
ing to  fire  escape  obstructed  by  stove.  Space  between 
stove  and  corner. of  rooms  22  inches.  Main  aisle  30  inches 
wide. 

CUBICLE  LODGING  HOUSE 

One  of  cross  aisles  obstructed  by  posts.  Space  between 
posts  and  wall  of  rooms  20  inches. 

A  DARK  ROOM  IN  A  "FLOP" 

Top  (fourth)  floor.  Majority  of  windows  boarded  up  and 
otherwise  obstructed.  Reasonably  clean;  no  bedding, 
only  bare  boards. 

INTERIOR  VIEW  OF  A  "FLOP" 

Third  floor,  showing  new  arrangement  of  beds  (?).  Clean, 
well  lighted  and  ventilated.  No  bedding  is  provided. 

TOILET  FACILITIES  IN  A  "FLOP" 
First  floor,  showing  wash  room  with  cement  floor,  wash 
sinks,   and   shower   bath.    Taken   after   enforcement   of 
Health  Department  regulations. 

A  ROOM  IN  A  CHEAP  LODGING  HOUSE 

Room  on  second  floor  containing  four  cots.  No  com- 
munication with  outer  air  or  light;  very  dark  and  dirty; 
air  foul. 

DORMITORY  LODGING  HOUSE  CONDUCTED  BY  A  RELI- 
GIOUS ORGANIZATION 

Fourth  floor.    Aisles  30  to  36  inches  wide,  space  between 
beds  6  to  36  inches.    Windows  on  both  ends.    Air  space 
less  than  required  by  Illinois  law. 
xxiv 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTORY 

THE  homeless  man  has  probably  figured  as 
a  member  of  human  society  since  its  be- 
ginning. He  is  mentioned  in  earliest  tra- 
dition and  history;  he  appears  in  the  literature 
of  every  race  and  nation.  We  cannot  conceive 
of  a  period  in  which  men  have  not  been  forced 
to  ask  aid  of  their  fellows,  or  in  which  old  age, 
sickness,  and  death  have  not  acted  as  causes  of 
dependence.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  from  the 
very  beginning  faults  of  character  led  some  to 
depend  upon  others  from  choice  and  not  from 
necessity.  The  "sturdy  beggar"  was  by  no  means 
unknown  to  the  ancients,  and  laws  for  his  suppres- 
sion very  early  appear  upon  the  statute  books  of 
nations. 

[The  modern  tramp  also  had  his  prototype  in 
earlier  centuries.  In  fact,  in  the  nomadic  days  of 
the  race  whole  nations  took  to  tramping.  Later, 
tEeTranks  of  the  crusaders  as  well  as  the  ships  of 
the  early  navigators  contained  men  impelled  to 
embark  by  the  love  of  adventure  quite  as  much  as 
by  the  ardor  of  religion  and  patriotism.  The 


HOMELESS   MEN 

>f  Jtoday  has  but  inherited  the  wanderlust 


of  the 


p:ut  thoilgh4  the  beggar  and  the  tramp  are  not 
pecul'iar  to  bur  o\vri  time  and  nation,  it  is  none  the 
less  true  that  there  has  been  a  remarkable  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  these  men  in  the  United 
States  during  the  last  two  decades.  Previous  to 
the  Civil  War,  the  word  "tramp"  did  not  appear 
upon  the  statute  books  of  any  state  in  the  Union. 
Today  nearly  all  recognize  his  existence  and  en- 
deavor to  cope  with  the  problem  he  presents. 
;  [Twenty  years  ago  a  few  small  cheap  lodging 
houses,  built  for  the  accommodation  of  homeless 
£.  working  men,  might  have  been  found  in  some  half 
dozen  of  our  largest  cities.  Today  there  are  a 
number  of  such  lodging  houses  in  every  large  city 
in  the  country;  they  house  not  only  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  "homeless"  workingmen,  but  also 
large  numbers  of  tramps,  beggars,  and  petty 
criminals,  j 

A  number  of  theories  have  been  advanced  in 
recent  years  to  account  for  this  increase  of  the 
homeless  and  vagrant  in  America.  Various  meth- 
ods of  solving  the  problems  due  to  this  increase 
have  been  suggested,  none  of  which  have  as  yet 
been  very  generally  adopted  or  have  proved  strik- 
ingly successful  when  tried.  Certain  cities  and 
towns  by  rigid  enforcement  of  severe  laws  have  been 
able  to  rid  themselves  for  a  time  of  these  vagrants, 
but  invariably  other  nearby  cities  have  received 
those  who  have  been  cast  out  and  the  problem  as  a 

2 


INTRODUCTORY 

whole  has  remained  unsolved.  The  army  of  tramps 
has  continued  to  increase. 

That  this  will  be  the  case  until  similar  laws  are 
passed  and  similar  methods  used  in  almost  or 
quite  all  the  states  of  the  Union,  is  now  coming 
to  be  generally  recognized  by  those  who  must  deal 
at  first  hand  with  these  men.  Just  what  these 
laws  and  methods  should  be,  however,  in  order  to 
be  effective,  is  still  open  to  debate.  The  chief 
difficulty,  perhaps,  lies  in  the  fact  that,  familiar 
figure  as  the  tramp  has  become,  very  few  persons 
really  know  much  about  him  or  about  the  condi- 
tions under  which  he  exists  today,  nor  do  they 
know  the  causes  of  his  vagrancy  or  the  results  of 
such  efforts  to  reform  or  reinstate  him  as  have 
already  been  made  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
It  was  with  the  hope  of  discovering  facts  that 
might  throw  light  upon  these  questions  and  aid  in 
bringing  about  a  more  general  understanding  of 
them  that  the  present  study  was  undertaken. 

The  term  "homeless  man"  might  be  applied  to 
any  man  who  has  left  one  family  group  and  not  yet 
identified  himself  with  another.  It  might  include 
hundreds  of  men  living  in  clubs,  hotels,  and  board- 
ing houses,  and  its  use  would  not  necessarily  imply 
a  forlorn  or  penniless  condition.  But  for  the 
purpose  of  this  study  the  term  will  be  used  to 
designate  those  men  of  the  homeless  class  who 
live  in  cheap  lodging  houses  in  the  congested  part 
of  any  large  city;  and  the  particular  thousand 
chosen  for  this  study  were  applicants  at  the  Chicago 

3 


HOMELESS   MEN 

Bureau  of  Charities  for  some  form  of  assistance 
during  the  years  1900  to  1903  inclusive.  -  By  no 
means  were  all  these  men  really  homeless.  A  num- 
ber were  married  men  with  homes  elsewhere,  who 
had  come  to  Chicago  for  work  or  for  other  reasons 
and  who  had  met  with  misfortunes  which  finally 
led  to  their  application  for  assistance.^  Often  the 
only  request  of  such  men  was  for  transportation 
back  to  their  homes.  Included,  also,  among  the 
thousand  were  runaway  boys,  criminals,  deserting 
husbands,  and  other  applicants  who  for  various 
reasons  did  not  wish  to  return  to  their  homes  ;lthe 
majority,  however,  were  unattached  single  men  to 
whom  the  term  "homeless"  could  be  rightly 
applied.  t 

The  histories  of  these  men,  both  before  and  for 
some  time  after  they  asked  charitable  help,  have 
been  traced.  Many  had  applied  for  aid  in  a  dozen 
or  more  cities  and  many  have  reapplied  since 
1903;  a  number  are  still  known  to  the  Bureau. 
The  later  histories  of  others  who  have  not  made 
recent  application,  have  been  investigated  by 
correspondence  and  by  personal  interviews  during 
the  preparation  of  this  volume;  so  that,  while  the 
original  applications  of  the  men  occurred  from 
seven  to  ten  years  ago,  the  study  of  their  cases  has 
extended  to  the  present  period.  A  number  of  the 
facts  brought  out  by  this  investigation  have  been 
tabulated  and  classified  and  are  here  presented. 
Some  account  is  also  given  of  the  efforts  that  the 
organization  made  to  put  the  men  applying  for  its 

4 


INTRODUCTORY 

help  on  their  feet,  or  to  secure  adequate  assist- 
ance for  those  incapable  of  self-support.  These 
efforts  were  restricted  by  the  laws  and  the  facili- 
ties for  dealing  with  dependents  which  now  exist; 
that  better  laws  and  better  facilities  are  urgently 
needed  if  better  results  are  to  be  hoped  for  should 
be  demonstrated  by  the  chapters  that  follow. 

Little  attempt  has  been  made  in  the  study  to 
point  out  the  causes  of  dependence  or  vagrancy  in 
the  individual  cases.  The  contact  of  the  charity 
agent  with  applicants  is  too  brief  and  in  the  ma- 
jority of  instances  his  knowledge  of  their  real 
histories  too  superficial  to  warrant  making  very 
positive  deductions.  Moreover,  even  in  cases 
that  are  carefully  inquired  into,  opinions  as  to 
causes  undergo  frequent  changes.  In  the  first 
interview,  a  certain  cause  may  be  the  most  ap- 
parent; investigation  brings  to  light  another  far 
more  important.  A  few  months'  acquaintance 
with  the  man  may  lead  the  agent  to  change  both 
his  first  and  his  second  impression  as  to  cause,  and 
after  an  experience  of  several  years,  during  which 
one  plan  of  help  after  another  has  been  tried  and 
has  failed,  and  traits  and  characteristics  unsus- 
pected at  first  have  been  found  to  bear  important 
relation  to  the  man's  inability  to  adjust  himself  to 
the  world  in  which  he  lives,  the  agent  may  realize 
that  alh  his  earlier  impressions  were  wrong,  and 
that  only  now  is  he  able  to  estimate  fairly  the 
many  elements  which  have  contributed  to  the 
man's  dependence. 

5 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Only  when  a  considerable  number  of  men  of  like 
characteristics  or  habits  are  studied  together  is  it 
practicable  to  say  with  any  degree  of  certainty 
that  some  particular  social  or  industrial  cause  or 
some  individual  trait  produces  vagrancy.  In  fact, 
even  in  such  groups  the  individuals  who  compose 
them  present  contrasts  in  matters  of  physical  and 
mental  health,  of  training,  temperament,  and 
moral  standards,  so  striking  and  so  extreme  that 
any  but  very  broad  generalizations  as  to  causes  are 
necessarily  precluded. 

A  study  of  the  homeless  men  who  apply  to  a 
charitable  society  will  inevitably  produce  differ- 
ent results  from  a  study  of  the  men  who  apply  at  a 
municipal  lodging  house,  at  a  down  town  mis- 
sion, or  at  a  soup  house.  The  proportion  of  the 
mentally  or  physically  handicapped  will  be  greatest 
in  the  group  soliciting  relief;  able-bodied  workmen 
will  be  most  numerous  among  those  who  seek 
shelter  at  the  municipal  lodging  house;  the  pro- 
portion of  frauds  and  parasites  will  probably  be 
largest  among  the  applicants  at  the  mission  or  at 
the  soup  house.  Those  who  frequent  the  cheap 
lodging  houses  would  probably  supply  the  greatest 
variety  of  types;  but  since  it  is  impossible  to  make 
a  study  there,  the  applicants  at  a  well  equipped 
charity  office  which  works  with  modern  methods 
will  doubtless  include  a  greater  variety  of  types  of 
lodging  house  men  than  are  accessible  to  investiga- 
tion through  any  other  channel. 

All  large  cities  and  some  small  ones  in  these 
6 


INTRODUCTORY 

days  have  cheap  lodging  houses  in  which  men  may 
secure  a  night's  lodging  at  a  cost  of  from  ten  to 
twenty-five  cents.  With  the  exception  of  Greater 
New  York,  the  city  of  Chicago  has  a  greater 
number  of  such  houses  and  a  larger  floating  tran- 
sient population  than  any  other  city  in  the  United 
States.  The  reasons  for  this  are  many.  Situated 
in  the  heart  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  at  the  foot 
of  Lake  Michigan  it  attracts  to  itself  during  a  part 
of  the  year  thousands  of  harvest  hands  from  the 
Northwest,  deck  hands  from  the  lake  boats,  rail- 
way construction  laborers,  men  from  the  lumber 
camps  of  the  North,  and  men  from  all  over  the 
Central  West  who  are  employed  in  seasonal  trades 
of  many  sorts. 

In  normal  times  men  of  this  class  who  come  to 
Chicago  need  not  long  remain  unemployed  if  they 
wish  work.  One  seasonal  trade  may  soon  be 
fitted  into  another.  The  period  between  the 
closing  of  navigation  in  the  autumn  and  the  begin- 
ning of  work  in  the  lumber  camps  is  not  long.  In 
February  the  ice-cutting  season  opens  and  this 
furnishes  employment  to  thousands  of  men  at  a 
time  of  year  when  in  many  other  cities  work  for 
unskilled  laborers  is  especially  scarce.  The  growth 
of  Chicago  is  so  rapid  and  constant  that  public 
works  and  private  building  practically  never 
cease.  One  form  of  work  resulting  from  this 
growth  is  what  is  designated  as  "wrecking."  Old 
buildings,  or  sometimes  comparatively  new  and 
good  ones,  are  torn  down  to  make  way  for  newer 

7 


HOMELESS   MEN 

and  larger  structures.  The  amount  of  such  work 
in  Chicago  is  considerable  and  gives  employment 
to  large  numbers  of  men.  During  the  course  of 
the  ordinary  winter  there  are  numerous  heavy 
snowfalls,  and  the  removal  of  snow  from  the  down- 
town streets  affords  temporary  employment  for 
hundreds. 

On  either  side  of  Clark  and  State  Streets  on  the 
South  Side;  on  Canal,  Desplaines,  and  Madison 
Streets  on  the  West  Side,  and  on  lower  Clark  and 
Wells  Streets  on  the  North  Side,  there  are  rows  of 
cheap  lodging  houses.  For  the  man  who  lacks  even 
the  small  amount  required  for  admission  to  these, 
the  Municipal  Lodging  House  doors  are  always 
open,  and  every  man  who  comes  to  Chicago  hon- 
estly seeking  work  knows,  or  soon  finds  out,  that 
he  will  have  little  difficulty  in  securing  food  and 
shelter  without  the  need  of  begging  for  them  in 
the  interval  before  he  finds  employment.  The 
Municipal  Lodging  House  of  Chicago  has  prob- 
ably done  more  extensive  work  than  any  other 
institution  of  its  kind  in  the  country  in  finding 
positions  for  men  who  apply  for  lodging.  Alto- 
gether, no  city  in  the  United  States  offers  more 
favorable  opportunities  for  winter  employment  for 
the  unskilled,  or  cheaper  food  and  shelter  than  does 
Chicago.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the 
city  attracts  unemployed  labor  from  all  over  the 
country. 

Among  tramps  and  vagrants  also  Chicago  is  a 
favorite  rallying  place.  It  is  the  greatest  railway 

8 


INTRODUCTORY 

center  in  the  country ;  trains  from  all  points  of  the  ' 
compass  hourly  pull  into  its  freight  and  passenger 
stations  and  bring  their  quota  of  homeless  men. 
Many  of  these  make  it  their  headquarters  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  year.  The  vagrancy  laws  are 
as  a  rule  rather  laxly  enforced  and  begging  is  a  safe 
as  well  as  a  lucrative  business.  And  here,  as  in 
most  other  large  cities,  politicians  are  likely  at 
election  times  to  add  to  the  comfort  and  security 
of  a  floating  population  whose  votes  may  usually 
be  counted  upon  in  return  for  small  favors.  In 
this  as  in  other  cities,  too,  there  are  mingling  with 
the  less  harmful  tramps  the  more  dangerous  yegg- 
men  and  petty  criminals,  numbers  of  whom  find  it 
comparatively  easy  to  hide  themselves  among  the 
homeless  throngs  in  the  lodging  houses.* 

Altogether,  viewing  the  population  of  the  cheap 
lodging  houses  from  the  standpoint  of  the  social 
worker,  it  may  be  stated  that  it  includes  four  dis- 
tinct though  constantly  merging  classes  of  men. 

*  No  exact  census  of  the  total  number  of  homeless  men  of  various 
types  in  the  lodging  house  districts  of  Chicago  has  been  taken,  but 
40,000  is  considered  a  conservative  estimate  by  several  careful  stu- 
dents of  the  question  who  are  closely  in  touch  with  local  conditions. 
This  number  is  somewhat  increased  at  election  times  and  very  greatly 
increased  when  word  goes  out,  as  it  did  during  the  winter  of  1907-8, 
that  relief  funds  were  being  collected  and  free  lodgings  and  food 
would  be  furnished  to  the  unemployed.  In  December,  January, 
February,  and  March  of  that  winter  all  private  lodging  houses  were 
filled  to  overflowing  and  the  Municipal  Lodging  House,  its  anm-x. 
and  two  other  houses  which  it  operated  gave  a  total  of  79.41 1  lodg- 
ings to  homeless  men  as  compared  with  6930  for  the  same  months  of 
the  winter  before,  an  increase  of  72,481.  The  Health  Department, 
which  took  charge  of  the  municipal  lodging  houses  and  made  a  care- 
ful study  of  local  conditions  during  the  winter  of  1907-8,  estimated 
the  number  of  homeless  men  then  in  Chicago  to  be  probably  not  less 
than  60,000. 


HOMELESS    MEN 

These  classes  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

(i)  Self-supporting.  All  men  of  whatever  trade  or 
occupation  who  support  themselves  by  their  own  exer- 
tions. Some  are  employed  all  the  year;  some  are 
seasonal  workers;  others  casual  laborers;  but  all  are 
independent. 

(2)  Temporarily  dependent.     Runaway  boys;  stran- 
gers who  lack  city  references  and  are  not  yet  employed; 
men  who  have  been  robbed ;  victims  of  accident  or  illness;  ( 
convalescents;  men  displaced  by  industrial  disturbances, 
or  by  the  introduction  of  machinery;  misfits;  foreigners 
unacquainted  with  the  language  and  not  yet  employed, 
and  other  men  without  means  who  could  again  become 
self-supporting  if  tided  past  temporary  difficulties. 

(3)  Chronically  dependent.     Contains  many  of  the 
.aged,  the  crippled,  deformed,  blind,  deaf,  tuberculous; 
the  feeble-minded,  insane,  epileptic;  the  chronically  ill; 
also  certain  men  addicted  to  the  continuous  and  ex- 
cessive use  of  drink  or  drugs,  and  a  few  able-bodied  but 
almost  hopelessly  inefficient  men. 

(4)  Parasitic.     Contains  many  confirmed  wanderers 
or  tramps;  criminals;  impostors;  begging-letter  writers; 
confidence  men,  etc.,  and  a  great  majority  of  all  chronic 
beggars,  local  vagrants,  and  wanderers. 

The  first  group  is  composed  of  able-bodied  men 
who  work  all  or  most  of  the  year  and  who  expect  to 
support  themselves  by  their  own  exertions.  In  the 
second  group  are  men  capable  of  self-support,  but 
temporarily  and  in  many  cases  quite  accidentally 
dependent.  In  the  third  are  men  who  formerly 
belonged  to  the  first  and  second  groups  but  who, 
on  account  of  age  or  chronic  physical  or  mental 
disability,  or  for  other  reasons,  such  as  the  excessive 
use  of  drink  or  drugs,  or  extreme  ignorance  and 
inefficiency,  have  become  continuously  dependent 

10 


INTRODUCTORY 

upon  the  public  for  support.  Men  of  this  class 
may  sometimes  again  become  at  least  partly  self- 
supporting  and  are  not  parasitic  in  spirit.  In  the 
fourth  group  are  the  parasites,  the  men,  whether 
able-bodied  or  defective,  who  make  a  business  of 
living  of?  the  public  and  who  apparently  do  so 
from  choice  rather  than  from  necessity.  Some  are 
thieves  and  criminals,  some  clever  impostors  and 
beggars  who  live  by  their  wits;  still  others  are 
only  "  tramps,"  not  necessarily  criminal,  but  never- 
theless anti-social. 

This  classification  takes  the  self-supporting, 
self-respecting,  able-bodied  lodging  house  resident 
of  average  morality  as  the  type  nearest  approach- 
ing the  normal  citizen.  Men  of  the  second  group 
fall  temporarily  below  this  normal  standard  but 
may  be  brought  back  to  it  unless  they  are  forced 
by  circumstances  still  farther  below  normal  and 
into  the  third  group.  All  three  of  these  groups  are 
constantly  contributing  to  the  fourth,  the  dis- 
tinctly abnormal,  with  which  society  must  deal 
along  corrective  and  repressive  lines. 

In  the  study  of  individual  cases  which  follows, 
it  will  be  seen  that  men  of  all  four  classes  are  in- 
cluded, and  attention  will  frequently  be  called  to 
the  steps  by  which  the  men  of  the  first  two  classes 
descend  to  the  ranks  of  the  chronically  dependent 
and  parasitic.  But  for  convenience  in  considering 
so  large  a  group  as  a  thoiiiahJ,  and  also,  it  is  be- 
lieved, for  greater  clearness,  the  men  will  not  be 
classified  for  study  according  to  the  degree  and 


HOMELESS   MEN 

character  of  their  dependence  ^but  will  instead  be 
divided  according  to  some  common  characteristic 
into  small  groups,  such  as  insane  men,  aged  men, 
boys,  beggars,  etc. 

In  every  group  will  be  found  men  who  belong  to 
each  of  the  four  classes  mentioned.  Among  the 
aged  men,  for  instance,*  some  are  self-supporting, 
some  temporarily  dependent,  some  continuously 
dependent,  and  a  few  have  been  tramps  or  vagrants 
since  their  youth  and  are  still  dependent  quite  as 
much  from  choice  as  from  necessity.  By  studying 
in  a  group  by  themselves  the  cases  of  all  those 
over  sixty,  a  clearer  picture  of  homeless  old  men 
is  presented  than  would  be  the  case  if  they  were 
classified  with  others  according  to  the  nature  and 
amount  of  their  dependence. 

In  explanation  of  the  fact  that  several  important 
phases  of  vagrancy  are  barely  mentioned  in  these 
pages,  and  that  methods  of  prevention  and  cure  of 
certain  evils  closely  related  thereto  have  hardly 
been  considered,  it  should  be  stated  that  this  work 
is  not  presented  as  a  general  treatise  on  the  sub- 
ject, or  as  a  study  of  the  methods  of  dealing  with 
vagrants  in  this  country,  or  as  a  solution  of  the 
problems  involved  in  their  treatment.  In  order  to 
cover  the  ground  at  all  adequately,  it  has  been 
necessary  to  hold  closely  to  the  immediate  sub- 
ject and  to  omit  the  description  and  discussion  of 
many  interesting  matters  relating  to  the  vagrancy 
problems  as  a  whole.  This  was  an  investigation  of 

*  See  Chapter  VII,  Homeless  Old  Men. 
12 


INTRODUCTORY 

typical  homeless  men  in  the  second  city  of  America ; 
the  conditions  there  were  the  conditions  under 
which  such  men  live  in  many  American  cities; 
the  efforts  made  in  their  behalf  were  made  under 
the  laws  and  with  the  facilities  then  and  now 
available.  No  inductive  treatment  of  investigated 
cases  of  individual  homeless  men  has  ever  been 
attempted  as  a  means  of  throwing  light  upon  the 
general  problem  of  vagrancy  in  America.  It  has 
seemed  worth  while,  therefore,  not  only  to  make 
this  study  but  to  present  its  results  in  a  form  so 
detailed  as  to  enable  each  reader  to  appreciate  for 
himself  its  bearing  upon  the  larger  subject. 


CHAPTER  II 
METHOD  OF  THIS  INVESTIGATION 

ONE  of  the  district  offices  of  the  Chicago 
Bureau  of  Charities*  is  located  within  half 
a  dozen  blocks  of  the  heart  of  the  lodging 
house  section  of  the  lower  South  Side,  and  during 
the  four  years  in  which  the  writer  was  connected 
with  the  society   (from    1900  to   1903  inclusive) 
practically  all  applications  of  homeless  men  to  the 
main  office  of  the  Bureau  or  to  any  of  the  South 
Side  offices  were  referred  to  that  district. 

When  the  office  was  first  opened  in  the  neighbor- 
hood a  great  many  men  applied  out  of  curiosity  to 
see  what  they  could  get  and  how  far  they  could 
deceive  the  workers  in  charge.  These  men 
belonged  to  the  class  which  makes  a  business  of 
living  at  the  expense  of  the  public.  Keen  ques- 
tioning by  trained  workers  almost  immediately 
disclosed  this  fact  and  such  men  soon  ceased  to  come 
in  any  considerable  number,  although  a  few  ap- 
plied during  every  month  of  the  year.  That  this 
class  of  men  had  thus  "sampled"  the  office  and 

*  Since  this  study  was  undertaken  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities 
and  the  Chicago  Relief  and  Aid  Society  have  amalgamated  under  the 
name  of  the  United  Charities  of  Chicago,  but  for  the  sake  of  clearness, 
the  original  title  is  here  used  throughout.  Homeless  men  are  now 
interviewed  and  aided  at  the  main  office  of  the  society  and  not  at  the 
Central  District  office  above  mentioned. 

'4 


METHOD   OF   THIS    INVESTIGATION 

had  come  to  respect  and  avoid  it  on  account  of  the 
strict  investigation  of  their  stories,  was  learned 
afterward  from  certain  of  the  men  themselves. 
Something  in  the  manner  of  the  interviews,  how- 
ever, led  these  "rounders"  and  impostors  to  re- 
cognize that  the  spirit  of  the  office  was  one  of 
sympathy  and  helpfulness  for  real  need,  and 
this  first  "sampling"  was  soon  followed  by  ap- 
plications from  men  of  another  sort  whose  stories 
were  true,  whose  needs  were  real,  and  who  were 
of  a  far  more  helpable  type  than  the  earlier 
applicants. 

These  men  were  frequently  referred  to  the  office 
by  men  who  had  themselves  been  helped,  but 
almost  as  frequently  by  those  to  whom  material 
aid  had  been  refused.  Sometimes  the  sender  was 
i-dentified,  but  more  often  the  applicant  could  only 
say, "A  man  in  the  lodging  house  sent  me,"  or 
"A  fellow  told  me  you  helped  men  if  they  were 
sick  or  anything."  In  one  instance  a  young  boy 
made  the  following  statement:  "The  fellow  who 
sent  me  told  me  not  to  lie  to  you.  He  said  that 
you  would  not  hold  it  against  me — that  you  might 
help  me  anyway  if  I  needed  it,  but  that  you'd 
find  the  lie  out  and  I'd  be  ashamed  that  I  had 
done  it."  No  single  fact  gave  the  district  workers 
a  better  opportunity  to  know  these  men  and  the 
conditions  under  which  they  lived  than  that  the 
men  themselves  felt  kindly  toward  the  office  and 
referred  to  it  other  men  who  were  really  helpable. 

The  Bureau  of  Charities  made  and  still  makes  a 
15 


HOMELESS    MEN 

special  effort  to  help  unemployed  men  find  work, 
and  on  this  account  still  a  third  class  of  applicants 
came  to  the  district  office, — men  who  asked  noth- 
ing but  employment,  who  were  capable  of  self- 
support,  and  who  were  neither  dependents  nor 
vagrants.  Such  men  frequently  had  some  slight 
mental,  physical,  or  temperamental  handicap. 
Sometimes  they  were  immigrants  unacquainted 
with  the  language;  sometimes  strangers  without 
city  references  or  knowledge  of  how  to  go  about  find- 
ing the  work  they  were  able  to  do.  Perfectly  able- 
bodied  men,  capable  of  finding  work  for  themselves, 
did  not  often  apply;  on  the  few  occasions  when 
they  did,  no  special  effort  was  made  to  help  them, 
as  the  employment  department  of  a  charity  office 
differs  from  an  ordinary  employment  agency,  and 
its  reason  for  being  is  only  that  it  may  assist  men 
to  find  work  who  might  otherwise  become  appli- 
cants for  relief. 

The  Bureau  of  Charities  for  a  number  of  years 
had  an  arrangement  with  the  Western  and  Central 
Passenger  Associations  by  which  persons  whose 
cases  were  investigated  and  recommended  by  the 
Bureau  might  secure  railroad  transportation  at 
half  rates.  It  was  very  difficult  to  secure  such 
transportation  otherwise  than  through  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  Bureau,  and  the  railroad  offices 
and  depots,  the  police  and  city  departments,  and 
many  other  agencies  that  received  appeals  for 
passes  or  half  rates,  referred  the  applicants  direct 
to  the  Bureau  office. 

16 


METHOD  OF   THIS    INVESTIGATION 

Through  all  these  ways,  as  well  as  from  ministers 
and  private  individuals  all  over  thecity  and  through 
personal  applications  from  the  men  themselves, 
large  numbers  of  homeless  men  of  many  types  came 
to  the  attention  of  the  office  in  the  course  of  a 
year,  and  opportunity  for  acquaintance  with,  and 
study  of,  this  class  was  greater  than  would  ordi- 
narily be  the  case.* 

In  almost  every  instance  when  a  homeless  man 
applied  for  aid,  an  investigation  was  made,  not 
merely  to  learn  the  truth  or  falsity  of  his  story, 
but  also  to  find  out  how  best  to  help  him  back  into 
normal  social  and  industrial  relations.  Theoretic- 
ally, an  investigation  was  made  in  every  case  re- 
ferred to  the  Bureau  of  Charities.  Practically,  no 
investigation  beyond  the  original  interview  was 
made  in  a  certain  percentage  of  the  cases  of  home- 
less men.  For  example,  a  man  applied  for  half-rate 
transportation  to  St.  Louis  and  admitted  upon 
being  questioned  that  he  was  able-bodied;  that 
he  had  had  no  one  but  himself  to  support;  that 
he  had  held  a  good  position,  paying  $2. 50  a  day,  up 
to  the  previous  day,  and  that  he  had  left  it  volun- 
tarily. Manifestly,  his  was  not  a  case  to  receive 
charitable  assistance.  His  request  was  refused 
and  no  investigation  made.  Another  instance, 
also  representative  of  a  type,  was  that  of  a  man 
who  asked  to  be  sent  to  Colorado  because  he  had 

*  In  the  Central  District  office  from  20  to  25  per  cent  of  all  appli- 
cations were  those  of  homeless  men.  In  the  1 1  other  districts  of 
the  Bureau  the  percentage  of  homeless  applicants  during  the  same 
period  was  only  2  to  3  per  cent. 

3  17 


HOMELESS    MEN 

tuberculosis.  He  admitted  that  he  had  no  money ; 
that  he  had  neither  friends  nor  relatives  in  Colo- 
rado able  to  assist  him,  nor  any  elsewhere  who 
would  send  him  money  for  living  expenses.  He 
was,  moreover,  too  ill  to  be  self-supporting  there. 
Under  the  circumstances,  it  would  have  been  cruel 
rather  than  kind  to  have  granted  his  request  and  to 
have  shipped  a  sick  and  penniless  man  to  a  com- 
munity upon  which  he  had  no  claim  and  which 
would  promptly  have  shipped  him  back.  Other 
forms  of  assistance  were  offered  and  every  effort 
made  to  make  the  man  understand  why  his  request 
was  denied,  but  he  refused  other  help  and  withdrew 
his  application.  He  had  not  given  enough  infor- 
mation to  enable  the  office  to  make  an  investiga- 
tion, and  he  never  returned.  Necessarily,  his  case 
was  dropped. 

Another  type  of  case  which  was  not  investi- 
gated was  that  of  men  who  applied  only  for  work 
at  a  time  when  the  office  was  overwhelmed  with 
serious  calls  for  aid  of  all  sorts  from  families 
in  the  district.  Such  men  were  questioned,  their 
statements  recorded,  and  they  were  given  sugges- 
tions as  to  places  where  they  might  apply  for 
employment.  They  were  also  asked  to  return  if 
they  did  not  find  it  or  were  in  real  need,  but  in  the 
stress  of  more  important  work,  the  statements 
they  made  about  themselves,  while  recorded,  were 
not  always  verified.  All  such  cases  and  any  others 
which,  for  similar  reasons,  were  not  investigated, 
have  been  omitted  from  this  study.  The  thou- 

18 


METHOD   OF   THIS    INVESTIGATION 

sand  cases  have  otherwise  been  taken  just  as  they 
stand  in  the  files  and  entirely  without  special  selec- 
tion. 

But  even  in  the  "  investigated  "  cases  the  amount 
of  information  secured  varies  greatly.  Reasons 
for  this  variation  lie  in  the  fact  that  not  all  the 
interviews  with  the  men  were  taken  by  agents  of 
equal  ability  and  training,  nor  had  the  inter- 
viewers exactly  similar  ideas  of  what  kind  of 
information  was  important  to  secure  for  the 
records.  But  what  one  might  have  wished  to 
know  in  regard  to  a  man  and  what  one  was  able 
to  learn  were  often  found  to  be  two  very  different 
things.  It  was  not  always  possible  to  get  all  the 
information  desired  without  needlessly  offending 
and  alienating  the  applicant.  When  a  man  asked 
only  to  be  directed  to  a  place  where  he  might  work 
for  his  lodging  and  when  he  seemed  to  be  decent 
and  self-respecting,  the  agent  was  hardly  justified 
in  asking  him  a  series  of  minute  questions  as  to 
his  past  history,  his  schooling,  the  age  at  which 
he  began  work,  etc.  Such  facts  and  many  others 
were  secured  in  hundreds  of  cases  where  the  men 
were  known  to  the  office  for  several  months  or 
years,  but  there  were  others  in  which  the  investiga- 
tion had  to  be  confined  to  one  or  two  work  refer- 
ences, and  the  knowledge  gained  of  such  men  was 
comparatively  slight. 

In  other  instances  the  men  gave  false  references 
or  addresses,  and  about  all  that  could  be  learned 
regarding  them  was  that  their  stories  were  not  true. 

19 


c 


HOMELESS   MEN 

TABLE   L— GENERAL   DATA  CONCERNING    1000 
HOMELESS  MEN 


A.  AGES,  BY  GROUPS 

10  to  14 19 

15  to  19 98 

20  to  24 129 

25  to  29.- 104 

30  to  39 200 

40  to  49 185 

50  to  59 118 

60  1069 85 

70  or  over 47 

Not  known 15 


B.  NATIVITY* 

American  (including  41  Ne- 
groes)    625 

German 92 

English 66 

Irish 61 

Canadian 25 

Scandinavian 24 

Other 74 

Not  known 33 


Total, 


Total 


1000 


1000 


L 


C.  CONJUGAL  CONDITION 

Single 740 

Married 78 

Widowed 1 16 

Divorced 15 

Separated 49 

Not  known 2 

Total.  .  . .  1000 


D.  AMOUNT  OF  EDUCATION 

Illiterate 52 

Common  school 872 

College $  i 

Education  not  known 25 


Total 


.  1000 


A  few  of  the  men  were  too  ill  and  some  too  old  or 
too  insane  to  answer  questions  intelligently.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  the  item  "not  known"  must 
appear  so  frequently  in  the  statistical  tables  of  this 
study,  but  the  fact  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 
both  interviews  and  investigations  were  originally 
made,  not  for  future  statistical  purposes,  but  with 
the  idea  of  learning  the  points  in  each  case  essential 
to  a  knowledge  of  how  best  to  help  the  particular 
applicant;  from  a  statistical  standpoint,  therefore, 

*The  parents  of  558  of  the  1000  men  were  American;  of  406, 
foreign  born;  and  of  36,  not  known.  Of  the  625  men  born  in  Amer- 
ica, the  parents  of  558  were  American,  and  of  55,  foreign  born;  of  3 
the  parentage  was  mixed,  and  of  9,  not  known. 

20 


METHOD   OF    THIS    INVESTIGATION 

the  records  from  which  the  tables  have  been  made 
up  were  frequently  found  wanting. 

As  will  be  seen  by  the  accompanying  table,  625 
of  the  one  thousand  men  (584  white  and  41 
colored),  were  born  in  America;  342  were  foreign 
born,*  and  of  33  the  birthplace  was  not  known. 
Nineteen  out  of  the  thousand  were  between  ten 
and  fourteen  years  of  age;  98  between  fifteen  and 
nineteen;  the  largest  number  in  any  one  group 
being  the  129  young  men  between  the  ages  of 
twenty  and  twenty-four.  Among  the  aged,  nine 
were  between  eighty  and  ninety-five. f 

In  noting  the  nationality,  the  ages,  and  the 
conjugal  condition  of  the  men,  their  own  state- 
ments have  been  taken.  In  doing  this  we  have  run 
the  same  risk  as  do  the  makers  of  the  United 
States  Census;  namely,  that  certain  of  the  men 
may  not  have  told  the  truth  on  these  points.  But 
as  the  instances  would  probably  be  rare  in  which 
they  would  have  had  any  reason  for  misrepresent- 
ing their  ages  or  nationality,  and  as  such  items  are 
usually  not  absolutely  verified  in  similar  tables, 
that  risk  has  been  of  necessity  ignored. 

Regarding  their  conjugal  condition,  it  is  probable 
that  there  were  some  instances  in  which  married 

*  The  birth  places  of  the  foreign  born  men  were  as  follows:  Canada, 
25;  England,  66;  Ireland,  61;  Scotland,  8;  Wales,  3;  Scandinavia, 
24;  Denmark,  3;  Holland,  7;  France,  12;  Switzerland,!;  Germany, 
92;  Austria,  6;  Hungary,  3;  Russia,  5;  Poland,  5;  Roumania,  4; 
Italy,  8;  India,  3;  West  Indies,  2;  Greece,  Syria,  Persia,  and  Trans- 
vaal, each  i. 

t  For  additional  data  concerning  the  1000  men,  see  Appendix  A, 
Tables  i  and  2,  p.  277. 

21 


HOMELESS    MEN 

men  who  had  deserted  their  families  claimed  to  be 
single,  and  a  few  single  men  who,  in  order  to  use  a 
pitiful  story  for  begging  purposes,  claimed  to  be 
married.  But  it  was,  as  a  rule,  comparatively  easy 
for  the  Bureau's  agent  to  verify  or  disprove  these 
statements,  and  it  is  unlikely  that  any  considerable 
number  of  such  errors  are  listed  among  the  cases 
tabulated  in  this  study.  A  letter  to  a  relative  or 
even  to  an  employer  in  the  home  town  was  almost 
sure  to  bring  out  the  existence  of  a  family  if  the 
man  had  one;  and  the  familiarity  of  the  agents 
with  the  fact  that  men  past  thirty  sometimes  mis- 
represent their  conjugal  state  led  the  interviewers 
usually  to  ask,  "Where  is  your  wife?"  or  "How 
much  of  a  family  have  you?"  rather  than  "Are  you 
married?"  or  "Have  you  a  family?"  In  this  way 
men  were  sometimes  led  to  admit  the  existence  of 
families  which  otherwise  they  might  have  failed 
to  mention.  Classified  by  conjugal  condition,  the 
number  in  each  group  was  as  follows:* 

Single 740 

Married 78 

Widowed 116 

Divorced 15 

Separated 49 

Not  known  2 


Total looo 

In  cases  where  the  man  was  in  friendly  touch 
with  his  wife  and  family,  expecting  soon  to  return, 

*  For  table  giving  conjugal  condition  of  the  men  classified  by  age 
groups,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  i,  page  277. 

22 


METHOD  OF  THIS   INVESTIGATION 

he  was  entered  as  "married"  in  distinction  to 
"widowed,"  "divorced,"  or  "separated." 

Under  "separated"  are  entered  the  cases  of  men 
legally  separated  from  their  wives;  those  who  had 
deserted  their  wives;  cases  where  separation  was 
by  mutual  consent;  also  the  cases  of  men  whose 
wives  had  deserted  them.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
the  exact  number  of  each  of  the  four  classes  in- 
cluded under  "separated"  cannot  be  given,  but 
while  certain  of  the  men  admitted  having  left 
their  families,  very  few  would  own  to  having 
deserted  them.  They  claimed  that  they  had  left 
in  order  to  find  work  and  professed  the  intention 
of  returning  soon.  This  claim  was  made  even  in 
a  few  instances  by  men  who  admitted  that  they 
had  not  written  to  their  homes  nor  heard  from 
them  in  five  years  or  more,  and  who  acknowledged 
that  their  wives  knew  nothing  of  their  whereabouts. 
Unquestionably,  a  number  of  these  men  had,  in 
fact,  left  their  homes  with  the  sole  intention  of 
seeking  work,  but  having  failed  to  find  it  and  hav- 
ing in  time  become  tramps  and  vagrants,  had  felt 
ashamed  to  return  in  their  penniless  and  degraded 
condition.  They  had  continued  to  wander  until 
even  vague  intentions  of  going  back  "some  day" 
had  left  their  minds  and  all  responsibility  for  the 
support  of  their  families  had  been  abandoned. 
Effort  was  often  made  to  persuade  men  of  this 
class  to  return  to  their  families,  but  I  do  not  recall 
an  instance  in  which  it  was  successful.  The  258 
men  who  at  the  time  of  their  applications  were,  or 

23 


HOMELESS   MEN 

had  been,  married,  owned  to  having  256  living 
children,  of  whom  144  were  under  sixteen. 

Two  facts  regarding  the  conjugal  condition  of 
these  men  are,  perhaps,  noteworthy.  One  is  the 
great  predominance  of  single  men,  due  in  part  to 
the  large  number  of  young  men  in  the  thousand 
studied.  The  other  fact  of  interest  is  that  among 
this  thousand  men  the  widowers  are  nearly  four 
times  as  numerous  as  among  the  male  population 
at  large.*  It  is  the  writer's  belief  that,  while  this 
percentage  of  difference  would  be  found  to  be 
somewhat  less  in  a  study  of  men  in  lodging  houses 
instead  of  among  men  who  are  applicants  for 
charity,  the  number  of  widowers  per  thousand 
would  still  be  found  greater  than  among  the 
general  population.  A  large  number  of  the  men 
dated  their  vagrancy  from  the  deaths  of  their 
wives  and  the  breaking  up  of  their  homes  which 
followed. 

Merely  as  a  matter  of  interest, — for  the  item 
probably  has  no  intrinsic  value, — the  number  of 
instances  in  which  the  stories  told  by  the  men  were 
found  to  be  true  or  false  has  been  recorded. 
In  126  cases  we  were  unable  to  prove  or  disprove 

*  POPULATION  FIGURES  (CENSUS  OF  1900) 

Percent 

Single 23,666,836  60.6 

Married 14,003,798  35.9 

Widowed i,  182,292  3.0 

Divorced 84,903  .2 

Not  known 121,412  .3 

Aggregate  men 39,059,241  100.0 

24 


METHOD   OF   THIS    INVESTIGATION 

the  men's  initial  stories,  either  because  through 
age  or  for  some  other  reason  they  were  unable  to 
give  definite  references,  or  because  the  persons 
to  whom  we  were  referred  had  moved  and  could 
not  be  found  or  else  did  not  reply  to  letters.  Ex- 
cluding the  126  whose  stories  could  not  be  verified, 
of  the  remaining  874  cases  the  stories  of  703  were 
found  to  be  true,  and  171  false.*  Expressed  in 
percentages,  the  stories  of  the  one  thousand  men 
were  mainly  true  in  70  per  cent  of  the  cases; 
mainly  or  wholly  false  in  17  per  cent;  and  could 
not  be  verified  in  the  remaining  1 3  per  cent. 

These  figures  do  not  mean  as  much  as  would 
appear  at  first  glance.  The  fact  that  his  initial 
story  could  not  be  verified  rarely  meant  that  we 
knew  nothing  about  the  applicant;  for  sometimes 
his  case  was  dealt  with  by  the  office  continuously 
for  several  months  or  even  years,  and  enough  was 
learned  of  his  character  to  enable  us  to  judge 
pretty  clearly  as  to  the  truth  or  falsity  of  his  first 
statements.  For  similar  reasons  the  fact  that  the 
man's  first  story  was  false  does  not  imply  that 
falsehood  has  been  mingled  with  truth  in  the  items 
classified  in  the  tables  accompanying  this  study. 
Upon  investigation,  some  facts  in  regard  to  a 
man's  life  could  usually  be  learned. 

For  example,  a  lad  of  seventeen  who  claimed 

*  In  addition  to  the  explanation  of  this  statement  given  by  the 
author  it  should  be  added  that  unskilful  questioning  would  have  elicited 
a  very  different  result.  The  703  men  whose  statements  were  in  the 
main  true,  were  helped  to  tell  the  truth  by  an  intelligent  and  sym- 
pathetic inquiry. — Editor. 

25 


HOMELESS   MEN 

to  be  an  orphan  came  to  the  office  one  day  and 
asked  to  be  given  employment  upon  a  farm  in  the 
country.  He  said  that  he  had  always  lived  in  the 
country  and  did  not  like  the  city;  that  he  was  used 
to  farming  and  had  come  to  the  city  out  of  curiosity 
two  weeks  before  but  now  wished  to  go  back. 
This  was  the  lad's  story;  but  from  a  man  friendly 
to  the  office  who  was  living  in  the  same  lodging 
house,  we  learned  that  this  boy  was  a  runaway 
from  a  good  home  in  Chicago.  We  soon  learned 
further  that  both  his  parents  were  living;  that 
he  had  been  born  and  brought  up  in  Chicago,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  attendance  at  an  occasional 
Sunday  school  picnic,  had  never  seen  the  country 
in  his  life — and,  of  course,  had  had  no  experience 
on  a  farm.  Every  word  of  the  boy's  story  was 
false  and  yet  there  are  few  cases  among  those 
tabulated  in  this  study  upon  which  more  complete 
information  of  all  sorts  was  obtained.  The  boy 
is  now  twenty-three  years  old,  is  a  confirmed  va- 
grant, and  still  occasionally  comes  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Bureau. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  be  able  to  record  that 
all  the  original  stories  found  to  be  true  meant  that 
the  men  who  told  them  were  really  truthful;  but 
the  courts  long  ago  took  cognizance  of  the  fact 
that  there  is  "the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth";  too  much,  therefore,  must 
not  be  credited  to  the  accounts  of  the  men  whose 
initial  statements  were  "true."  They  were  fre- 
quently led  to  tell  the  exact  truth  in  order  that 

26 


METHOD  OF  THIS   INVESTIGATION 

they  might  be  more  likely  to  receive  help  after 
their  stories  had  been  investigated,  but  such 
truth  by  no  means  meant  the  whole  truth,  as  the 
following  story  will  indicate: 

A  man  came  to  the  office  on  crutches,  which  he 
used  on  account  of  a  recently  broken  leg.  He  told 
us  the  story  of  the  accident,  how  and  where  it 
had  occurred,  and  gave  the  name  of  the  hospital 
in  which  he  had  been  treated.  These  statements 
were  found  to  be  exactly  true.  He  gave  the  names 
of  three  firms  for  which  he  had  worked  and  of  one 
personal  friend,  as  references.  All  these  spoke 
well  of  him.  He  also  referred  us  to  his  record  as 
a  soldier,  which  we  found  to  be  excellent.  After 
all  these  points  had  been  verified,  probably  almost 
any  one  would  agree  that  this  case  might  be  con- 
sidered "investigated"  and  that  the  agent  knew 
the  man  well  enough  to  deal  intelligently  with  his 
problem.  The  case  looked  simple.  Here,  appar- 
ently, was  an  honest  workman  temporarily  unable 
to  support  himself  on  account  of  an  accident  which 
he  could  not  have  foreseen  nor  avoided.  That 
out  of  good  wages  he  had  not  saved  enough  to 
carry  himself  through  a  rainy  day  was  a  point 
against  him,  but  in  this  respect  he  was  not  different 
from  hundreds  of  other  strong,  young  fellows,  with 
only  themselves  to  support,  who  go  on  from  year 
to  year  spending  all  they  earn.  Light  work  which 
he  could  do  seated  and  which  would  enable  him 
to  earn  his  living  until  he  could  discard  the  crutches 
and  return  to  his  trade,  would  undoubtedly  be  the 

27 


HOMELESS   MEN 

only  aid  required  in  order  to  reinstate  him  in  a 
position  of  self-support. 

But  what  were  the  facts  with  which  at  this  point 
we  were  not  acquainted?  This  man  had  neglected 
to  tell  us  that  he  was  a  periodic  drinker  of  long 
standing;  that  during  his  drinking  spells  he  had 
several  times  stolen  money, — though  at  other  times 
he  was  honest;  that  he  had  served  a  term  in  the 
penitentiary  for  the  last  offense  of  the  sort  and  that 
a  warrant  for  his  arrest  was  even  then  in  the  hands 
of  the  sheriff  of  an  Illinois  town.  He  had  also 
neglected  to  mention  that  he  had  been  married; 
that  his  wife  was  now  dead,  but  that  he  had  a 
little  child  dependent  upon  him  who  was  in  the 
care  of  his  mother.  He  had  further  failed  to  give 
the  names  of  certain  employers,  friends,  and  rela- 
tives whose  statements  regarding  him  would 
necessarily  have  been  quite  different  in  character 
from  those  of  the  few  persons  whom  the  agents  of 
the  Bureau  had  been  permitted  to  interview. 

The  experience  with  this  case  was  one  of  a 
number  which  taught  the  district  workers  that  as 
a  source  of  real  information  in  regard  to  an  appli- 
cant, "work  references,"  though  necessary,  are 
of  less  value  than  relatives.  An  interview  with  a 
single  near  relative  is  far  more  enlightening  and 
helpful. 

The  length  of  time  that  men  were  known  to  the 
office,*  like  the  truth  or  falsity  of  their  statements, 

*  One  day,  194  men;  2  days,  49;  2  days  to  i  week,  143;  i  week  to 
i  month,  192;  i  month  to  6  months,  163;  6  months  to  i  year,  58; 

28 


METHOD   OF   THIS    INVESTIGATION 

is  very  likely  to  mislead  the  reader  who  is  not 
familiar  with  all  the  facts.  A  man  may  be  en- 
tered as  known  to  the  office  five  or  six  years  and 
yet  the  information  in  regard  to  him  may  be  very 
meager.  This  is  especially  true  of  professional 
beggars  who  are  repeatedly  reported  to  the  office 
by  people  from  whom  they  beg,  but  about  whom 
little  can  be  learned;  and  of  tramps  who  drop  in 
once  or  twice  a  year  for  several  years,  but  never 
give  much  information  about  themselves.  On  the 
other  hand,  acquaintance  with  some  of  the  men 
was  continuous  for  long  periods.  A  few  have 
been  known  from  the  early  days  of  the  Bureau  to 
the  present  time.  In  one  instance  a  lad  who  first 
came  to  its  attention  at  the  age  of  seven  as  a 
younger  child  in  a  dependent  family,  is  now  known 
to  the  Bureau  as  a  confirmed  vagrant  of  eighteen, 
although  there  is  but  slight  record  of  him  during 
the  interval.  As  a  general  rule,  more  was  known 
of  men  who  are  entered  as  "known  to  the  office" 
during  several  months  or  years,  than  of  those  who 
applied  but  once  or  twice.  This,  however,  was  by 
no  means  always  true.  Code  telegrams*  to  and 
from  charity  organization  societies  of  other  cities 
were  frequently  used  in  the  investigation  of 
cases  requiring  immediate  action,  and  considerable 
information  was  sometimes  secured  about  a  man 

i  year  to  2  years,  55;  2  years  to  10  years,  141;  over  10  years,  5. 
Total,  looo.  For  length  of  time  the  men  were  in  the  city  before 
making  application  to  the  Bureau,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  2,  p.  277. 
*  See  footnote  on  Transportation  Code,  in  Chapter  XI,  Inter- 
state Migration  of  Paupers  and  Dependents,  p.  208. 

29 


HOMELESS    MEN 

within  a  few  hours'  time  and  his  case  finally  dis- 
posed of  in  less  than  a  day.  There  are  a  few 
instances  of  men  who  applied  but  once  at  the  office, 
but  who  made  statements  which  enabled  the  agents 
to  trace  the  whole  history  of  their  lives.  These 
facts  must  be  kept  in  mind  by  the  reader  or  he  will 
be  liable  both  to  overestimate  the  importance  of 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  a  man's  statements  and  to 
underestimate  the  value  of  statistics  based  upon 
the  study  of  men  who  were  known  to  the  office  but 
a  short  time. 

No  place  in  which  to  enter  the  amount  of  the 
applicant's  education  was  specified  upon  the 
record  cards  of  the  Bureau,  and  this  information 
was  not  always  asked  for.  The  items  have 
therefore  been  made  up  from  our  general  knowl- 
edge of  the  men  after  our  investigations,  and  may 
be  summarized  as  follows: 

Illiterate 52 

Common  School 872 

College 51 

Education  not  known       .       .       .       .  25 


Total looo 

Any  man  able  to  read  and  write  has  been  en- 
tered as  having  had  a  common  school  education, 
except  such  as  are  known  to  have  had  college 
training  besides.*  In  the  majority  of  cases  the 
knowledge  obtained  of  the  amount  of  education 

*  For  facts  of  interest  about  the  college  men  in  this  group,  see 
Appendix  A,  Table  3,  p.  278. 

30 


METHOD  OF  THIS   INVESTIGATION 

was  not  accurate  enough  to  make  possible  a 
separation  of  high  school  from  common  school, 
although  in  35  instances  the  men  are  known  to  have 
had  high  school  training  and  the  actual  number  of 
such  men  is  probably  much  greater.  My  personal 
impression  from  acquaintance  with  the  872  men 
whose  cases  were  entered  under  "common  school" 
is  that  a  large  proportion  of  them  had  had  but  a 
slight  amount  of  schooling.  This  impression  is 
based  upon  the  histories  of  the  men,  the  ages  at 
which  they  went  to  work  or  began  to  wander,  and 
upon  other  facts  which  bore  direct  relation  to  the 
amount  of  their  schooling.  Only  52  of  the  men 
were  known  to  be  illiterate;  that  is,  unable  to 
read  or  write  even  in  their  own  languages.  Of 
these,  26  were  of  foreign  birth.  The  feeble- 
minded in  the  group,  of  whom  there  were  20,  have, 
of  course,  increased  the  number  of  illiterates. 
The  25  recorded  as  "not  known"  were  probably 
illiterate,  but  lacking  definite  knowledge,  I  have 
not  so  entered  them. 


CHAPTER  III 

PHYSICAL  CONDITION   OF   HOMELESS 

MEN 

THE  statistics  which  have  been  gathered  in 
regard  to  conditions  of  health  among  the 
thousand  men  here  studied  would  seem  to 
prove  that  a  very  large  percentage  of  this  class  are 
physically  or  mentally  below  normal.  It  must, 
however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  these  statistics 
relate  after  all  to  a  group  of  homeless  men  who  are 
not  in  all  respects  typical  of  the  mass  of  such  men 
in  lodging  houses,*  since  all  of  themjiave  applied 
for  relief.  In  general  charity  work,  sickness  has 
been  found  to  be  one  of  the  commonest  immediate 
causes  (rarely  the  only  cause)  of  need,  and  this 
seems  to  be  true  of  charitable  work  for  homeless 
men;  a  very  large  proportion  apply  for  help 
because  they  are  temporarily  or  permanently 
disabled  by  accident  or  disease. 

If,  as  has  been  already  suggested,  a  study  could 
be  made  of  homeless  men  in  lodging  houses 
instead  of  among  applicants  for  chanty,  the  per- 
centage of  those  in  good  health  would  undoubtedly 

*  See  Appendix  B,  p.  314,  for  a  study  of  Chicago  lodging  houses 
and  their  relation  to  the  health  of  homeless  men. 

32 


PHYSICAL   CONDITION    OF    HOMELESS   MEN 

be  much  higher.  No  statistics,  however,  are  avail- 
able for  purposes  of  comparison.  No  physical 
"examination  has  ever  been  made  of  men  in  the 
lodging  houses  of  any  city;  and  although  in  a  few 
municipal  lodging  houses  physicians  have  been 
employed  to  examine  the  lodgers,  they  have,  as  a 
rule,  examined  and  made  records  only  of  men  who 
appeared,  or  claimed  to  be,  ill.  No  systematic 
record  has  been  kept  of  the  number  of  the  crippled, 
maimed,  epileptic,  feeble-minded,  or  the  deaf  and 
the  blind  among  the  lodgers.  In  the  very  few 
municipal  lodging  houses  in  this  country  where  a 
physician  has  been  in  regular  attendance,  he  has 
been  employed  chiefly  if  not  wholly  to  watch  for 
and  to  prevent  the  spread  of  contagious  diseases 
among  the  men. 

Although  the  figures  here  presented  as  to  the 
amount  of  defectiveness  and  disease  among  home- 
less men  are  more  complete  than  any  that  can  be 
discovered  for  purposes  of  comparison,  these  also 
are  incomplete,  for  no  private  charitable  society 
has  the  right  to  insist  (as  might  a  municipal  lodging 
house)  that  every  man  who  applies  shall  be  ex- 
amined by  a  physician, — nor  is  this  necessary;  and 
although  agents  of  the  Chicago  Bureau  were  in- 
structed to  note  the  physical  and  mental  condition 
of  every  applicant,  the  statements  of  those  who 
appeared  to  be  and  claimed  to  be  in  good  health 
were  not  ordinarily  corroborated.  In  attempting 
at  the  present  time  to  follow  up  the  cases  of  two- 
thirds  of  this  group  of  a  thousand  men  I  have  found 
3  33 


HOMELESS   MEN 

that  several  have  since  died  from  diseases  which 
must  have  been  far  advanced  when  they  applied, 
although  there  were  no  visible  evidences  of  disease 
at  that  time,  and  the  men  having  made  no  com- 
plaint of  being  ill  were  not  sent  for  examination. 
Such  men  are  listed  in  this  study  among  the  able- 
bodied.  So,  also,  are  those  who  claimed  to  be 
suffering  from  rheumatism,  heart  disease,  or  other 
ailments,  but  who  did  not  go  to  the  physicians  to 
whom  they  were  sent  nor  return  to  the  office  of  the 
Bureau.  It  would  be  unfair  to  conclude  that  none 
of  these  were  actually  ill.  A  chance  meeting  with 
friends  who  gave  the  needed  help  may  have  relieved 
them  of  the  necessity  of  returning  to  the  Bureau 
for  further  aid,  and  other  quite  as  legitimate 
reasons  may  explain  their  not  going  for  examina- 
tion. Nevertheless,  in  this  study  such  men  have 
not  been  given  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  but  have 
been  classed  with  the  able-bodied. 

When  a  man  applied  for  aid  who  was,  or  claimed 
to  be,  unable  to  support  himself  on  account  of  his 
physical  or  mental  condition,  the  society  felt 
justified  in  taking  the  position  that  he  should  not 
receive  aid,  other  than  emergent,  unless  he  was 
willing  to  allow  his  condition  to  be  passed  upon 
by  a  physician  in  order  that  we  might  know  just 
how  ill  he  was  and  the  probable  time  when  he  would 
again  be  able  to  work.  All  such  men  and  any 
others  who  seemed  to  be  ill  and  who  were  willing 
to  go,  were  sent  to  dispensaries  or  to  private 
physicians.  About  a  third  of  the  examinations 

34 


PHYSICAL   CONDITION    OF    HOMELESS   ME  f 

were  made  at  the  dispensaries  of  St.  Luke's  and 
other  South  Side  hospitals;  the  remaining  two- 
thirds  by  private  physicians  in  friendly  touch 
with  the  work  of  the  office.  Not  infrequently,  the 
assistance  of  a  famous  surgeon,  alienist,  or  other 
specialist  was  secured.  In  a  few  doubtful  cases 
several  physicians  were  consulted. 

Self-evident  defects,  like  the  loss  of  a  limb,  were 
entered  upon  the  records  without  further  corrob- 
oration  than  was  necessary  to  ascertain  that  a 
sound  arm  was  not  bound  to  a  man's  side,  leaving 
his  coat  sleeve  empty,  or,  in  other  cases,  that 
similar  deceits  were  not  practiced.  A  few  such 
cases  were  found  and  there  were  other  "fake"  or 
"phoney  "cripples  (to  use  the  men's  own  terms)  as 
well  as  a  number  of  "hospital  rounders."  These 
have  been  listed  in  the  tables  of  beggars,  frauds, 
and  impostors,  in  Chapter  X. 

The  examining  doctors  were  invariably  asked 
to  determine  the  physical  ability  of  the  men  to 
earn  their  own  living,  and  'frequently  the  reports 
returned  to  the  office  related  only  to  this  question  ; 
as,  for  instance,  "This  man  is  suffering  from  a 
chronic  organic  disease  which  will  incapacitate 
him  for  heavy  labor  for  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
which  probably  will  not  be  long.  I  should  advise 
some  light  employment  to. occupy  his  mind,  but 
doubt  whether  he  will  ever  again  be  able  to  be 
self-supporting.  Good  food  and  freedom  from 
worry  will  prolong  his  life."  Or,  still  more 
informally,  "  I  found  John  Smith  whom  you  re- 

35 


HOMELESS    MEN 

TABLE   II.— DEFECTS  AND  DISEASES  AMONG  627  MEN 

Number  of 
Condition  Instances 

Insanity* 52 

Feeble-Mindedness* 19 

Epilepsy* 18 

Paralysis 40 

Other  Nervous  Disorders! 21 

Tuberculosis 93 

Rheumatism 37 

Venereal  Diseases 21 

Other  Infectious  Diseases f 15 

Heart  Disease 14 

Diseases  of  Organs  other  than  Heartf 19 

Crippled,  Maimed, t  or    Deformed — from    Birth  or  by 

Accidents 168 

Rupture 1 1 

Cancer 6 

Blind — including  partly  blind§ 43 

Deaf — including  partly  deaf§ 14 

Defective  Health — through  use  of  Drink  and  Drugs. . .  16 
Defective  Health — from  lack  of  nourishment  and  other 

causes 24 

Con  v^tescent 33 

AgedlT 35 

All  other  known  diseases  or  defects! 7 

Doubtfulf 16 

Total  instances 722 

Total  Number  of  Different  Men  in  Defective  Health  or 

Condition 627 

ferred  to  my  office  today  a  very  sick  man  and  have 
placed  him  in  St.  Luke's  Hospital." 
The  nature  of  these  statements  and  the  fact 

*  See  special  chapters  dealing  with  the  insane,  feeble-minded,  and 
epileptic,  and  with  the  aged. 

t  For  additional  data  with  regard  to  these  groups,  see  Appendix  A, 
Table  4,  p.  279. 

J  In  addition  to  these  168  there  were  86  men  crippled  or  maimed 
by  diseases,  making  a  total  of  254  in  all.  See  Chapter  IV,  The 
Crippled  and  Maimed. 

§  Special  data  concerning  the  blind  and  deaf  will  be  found  in 
Appendix  A,  Table  6,  p.  281. 

36 


PHYSICAL   CONDITION    OF    HOMELESS    MEN 

that  men  were  sometimes  referred  to  the  Municipal 
Lodging  House  for  a  night's  lodging  and  that 
reports  received  from  that  institution  later  stated 
that  its  physician  had  found  them  to  be  ill  and  had 
sent  them  to  a  hospital,  will  account  for  the  item 
"doubtful"  in  Table  II. 

No  one  of  the  men  has  been  listed  as  suffering 
from  a  specific  disease  or  defect,  whose  condition 
was  not  either  self-evident  or  vouched  for  by  a 
written  or  verbal  statement  by  the  physician  who 
examined  him.  So  far  as  it  goes,  therefore,  the 
list  of  diseases  and  defects  given  in  Table  II,  and 
the  proportions  in  which  they  appear,  may  be 
depended  upon  as  approximately  accurate,  with 
the  exception  of  venereal  diseases  and  tuberculosis. 
In  regard  to  the  former,  unless  a  man  had  open 
sores,  trouble  with  his  eyes,  or  lameness  not  other- 
wise accounted  for,  which  led  the  interviewer  to 
suspect  the  presence  of  syphilis  or  kindred  ailments, 
he  was  not  sent  to  a  physician  for  examination  and 
the  disease  escaped  noting.  With  so  chance  a 
method  of  detection,  the  number  of  such  cases 
given  is  unquestionably  too  small.  A  man  en- 
tered as  blind  or  as  crippled  may  also  have  been 
syphilitic  without  that  fact  being  discovered. 
Locomotor  ataxia,  in  a  majority  of  cases  a  conse- 
quence of  syphilis,  and  certain  forms  of  paralysis 
sometimes  so,  are  both  common  among  men  of  de- 
fective health  in  lodging  houses. 

Tuberculosis,  the  other  disease  of  which  there 
were  undoubtedly  more  cases  than  the  figures 

37 


HOMELESS    MEN 

indicate,  is  difficult  to  recognize  in  its  earlier 
stages,  and  unless  a  man  complained  of  being  ill, 
or  his  general  appearance  suggested  the  disease, 
he  was  not  examined  for  it.  Ninety-three  of  the 
men  were,  however,  definitely  known  to  be  suf- 
ferers,* and  a  number  of  cases  of  chronic  bronchitis 
may  have  developed  into  tuberculosis  later;  and 
pneumonia  convalescents  living  perforce  in  the 
infected  rooms  of  lodging  houses  must  frequently 
have  had  the  seeds  of  tuberculosis  already  at 
work  in  their  systems  at  the  time  they  applied  to 
the  Bureau  for  aid. 

Forty  of  the  93  tuberculous  men  gave  Chicago 
as  their  legal  residence  and  of  these  at  least  30  are 
known  to  have  been  living  in  lodging  houses  for 
one  year  or  more  at  the  time  they  came  to  us.  1 1  is 
of  course  not  possible  to  say  positively  where  any- 
one suffering  from  a  germ  disease  breathed  in  the 
infection  that  caused  his  illness,  but,  although  in 
44  cases  (most  of  them  non-resident)  we  knew  that 
the  men  were  afflicted  with  tuberculosis  before 
they  entered  the  lodging  houses,  in  38  cases  there 
was  a  reasonable  doubt  as  to  whether  this  was  the 
fact.  In  ii  instances  we  knew,  almost  beyond 
question,  that  the  men  were  in  perfectly  sound 
health  previous  to  their  taking  up  residence  in 
the  Chicago  lodging  houses,  and  the  presumption 
is  that  they  contracted  the  disease  within  them. 
One  man  of  the  1 1  we  knew  for  three  years,  and 

*  For  facts  concerning  nationality,  conjugal  condition,  and  occupa- 
tions of  the  tuberculous  men,  classified  by  age  group,  see  Appendix  A, 
Table  5,  p.  280. 

38 


PHYSICAL   CONDITION    OF    HOMELESS    MEN 

tuberculosis  developed  -luring  the  last  six  months 
of  that  period.  Another  man,  known  to  the  office 
two  years,  developed  the  disease  in  the  last  three 
months  of  our  acquaintance  with  him.  Another, 
known  two  and  a  half  years  and  for  different 
reasons  examined  three  times  during  that  period 
by  our  physicians,  showed  symptoms  of  the  disease 
only  upon  the  last  examination  but  died  of  it  at 
Dunning*  two  months  later.  Several  young  boys 
from  whose  parents  we  learned  that  they  had  been 
in  perfect  health  when  they  left  home  and  that  no 
member  of  their  families  was  tuberculous,  de- 
veloped the  disease  after  a  year  or  less  of  tramping 
and  lodging  house  life,  il  tjsjrianifestly  impossible 
to  prove  that  any  of  tEesVmen,  or  many  others 
whose  records  are  similar,  acquired  the  disease  in 
the  lodging  houses,  but  from  the  chronically, 
unsanitary  condition  of  those  houses  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  they  did  so.  i 

Although  627  men  of  the  thousand  were,  by  the 
methods  of  investigation  and  examination  which 
have  been  noted,  found  to  be  diseased  or  defective,! 
the  handicaps  of  many  were  slight,  not  really 
affecting  their  working  power  to  any  appreciable 
extent;  those  of  others  were  temporary,  not 
affecting  it  for  long.  One  hundred  and  ninety- 
five  of  the  thousand  were  addicted  to  the  excessive 

*  The  Cook  County  Infirmary  (almshouse)  is  situated  at  Dunning. 

t  Classified  by  ten-year  periods,  the  ages  of  these  men  were:  Under 
20  years,  41;  20  to  30  years,  137;  30  to  40  years,  130;  40  to  50  years, 
134;  50  to  60  years,  85;  60  to  70  years,  55;  above  70  years,  37;  not 
known,  8.  Total,  627. 

39 


HOMELESS    MEN 

use  of  drink  and  known  to  be  drug  users.  In  all 
these  cases  the  earning  power  of  the  men  was  more 
or  less  affected  by  these  habits,  but  in  only  16 
instances  (those  included  in  Table  II)  was  their 
health  so  seriously  affected  that  their  physical 
condition,  as  well  as  the  habit  itself,  handicapped 
them  in  matters  of  employment.  Thirty-three 
convalescents  have  been  included  in  the  table  be- 
cause although  dismissed  from  the  hospitals  as 
"cured"  they  were,  in  reality,  so  far  from  well  that 
in  some  cases  they  would  have  been  incapable  of 
self-support  for  a  number  of  weeks,  even  under 
the  best  of  circumstances,  while  under  those  in 
which  they  are  forced  to  live  in  the  lodging  houses, 
complete  recovery  is  of  ten  long  postponed  or  even 
unattainable  in  the  end. 

Whether  a  physical  condition  is  temporary  or 
permanent  is  not  easy  in  the  beginning  to  deter- 
mine, and  whether  such  condition  be  trifling  or 
important  can  be  judged  only  in  relation  to  the 
particular  man  affected.  For  example,  the  loss  of 
one  eye  did  not  affect  the  working  ability  of  a  day 
laborer,  but  the  same  loss  suffered  by  a  railroad 
engineer  prevented  him  from  securing  work  at  his 
trade  and  was  the  chief  cause  of  his  dependence. 
Similarly,  the  loss  of  a  finger  or  two  would  not 
incapacitate  a  sewer  digger,  but  it  threw  out  of 
employment  and  was  an  important  contributory 
cause  of  the  vagrancy  of  a  certain  factory  man,  to 
manipulate  whose  machine  those  particular  fingers 
had  been  essential.  In  both  instances,  these  slight 

40 


PHYSICAL   CONDITION    OF    HOMELESS    MEN 

handicaps  formed  active  causes  of  dependence 
until  the  men  succeeded  in  readjusting  themselves 
to  new  trades  or  new  forms  of  employment.  Such 
adjustment  for  certain  of  the  older  men  was  found 
to  be  quite  as  difficult  as  was  that  in  the  cases  of 
men  whose  labor  had  been  displaced  by  the  intro- 
duction of  machinery.  In  fact,  the  physical  handi- 
cap proved  the  greater  obstacle. 

Lesser  injuries  than  the  two  cited  sometimes  had 
far-reaching  and  unexpected  results.  A  man  on 
his  way  to  newly-found  and  'much-needed  work 
one  day  gave  an  expressman  a  lift  in  handling  a 
heavy  trunk.  By  some  awkwardness  it  slipped  and 
crushed  his  right  thumb.  A  trifling  accident,  per- 
haps, but  the  sore  thumb,  although  given  the  best 
of  surgical  care  from  the  beginning,  not  merely 
lost  the  man  the  permanent  job  to  which  he  was 
going  when  the  accident  occurred,  but  kept  him 
from  any  other  work  for  several  weeks.  I n  another 
very  similar  case,  an  injured  thumb  was  not  given 
proper  care  and  the  man  ultimately  lost  his  left 
arm. 

To  what  extent  the  defects  and  diseases  listed 
in  this  and  the  three  following  chapters  were  due 
to  causes  related  to  the  vagrancy  of  the  men,  is 
a  question  hard  to  decide  with  any  certainty. 
Exposure  and  irregular  living  probably  caused 
the  dysentery  from  which  a  few  of  the  men  suffered. 
Similarly,  the  mode  of  life  may  have  caused  the 
rheumatic  lamenesses  with  which  37  men  were 
afflicted.  The  insanity  of  certain  of  the  men 


HOMELESS    MEN 

undoubtedly  bore  direct  relation  to  lack  of  food, 
worry,  and  irregular  habits,  and  it  is  well  known 
that  the  number  of  seizures  from  which  an  epileptic 
suffers  is  increased  by  idleness  and  worry.  In  a 
few  other  ways  the  vagrant  lives  of  these  men  may 
have  been  either  directly  responsible  for  their 
physical  or  mental  conditions  or  largely  contribu- 
tory to  them.  On  the  other  hand,  in  numbers  of 
cases  such  conditions  were  themselves  the  causes 
and  not  the  effects  of  the  vagrancy.  This  was 
especially  true  of  the  men  who  had  met  with 
industrial  or  other  accidents  involving  the  loss  of  a 
hand  or  a  foot.  Several  men  were  known  to  have 
been  fully  self-supporting  before  such  accidents 
occurred,  but  to  have  become  partly  or  totally 
dependent  afterward.* 

In  other  cases  the  physical  or  mental  condition 
of  a  man  seemed  to  be  both  a  cause  and  an  effect 
of  his  vagrancy.  Take,  for  instance,  a  case  in 
which  from  a  spirit  of  adventure  a  young  fellow 
starts  out  to  beat  his  way  on  the  railroad.  Within 
a  few  months  he  meets  with  an  accident  which 
necessitates  the  amputation  of  his  right  arm  or 
both  his  legs.  He  is  ever  afterward  a  cripple,  and 
being,  for  a  time  at  least,  necessarily  dependent, 
he  develops  into  a  confirmed  vagrant.  Here  the 
physical  handicap  is  caused  by  the  vagrancy  and 
itself  produces  further  vagrancy.  I  The  same  is  true 
when  a  man  suffering  from  a  slighrrhental  disorder 

*See  Chapter  IV,  The  Crippled  and  Maimed;  and  Chapter  V, 
Industrial  Accidents.  See  also  Appendix  A,  Tables  9-13,  pp.  284- 
288. 

42 


PHYSICAL   CONDITION    OF   HOMELESS   MEN 

wanders  away  from  his  friends  and  starts  out  on 
the  "road/'  Within  a  month  his  mode  of  life  has 
greatly  aggravated  his  insanity  and  he  wanders 
on  in  this  condition  for  months  or  even  years  unless 
some  one  stops  him  and  assures  his  proper  care.  ^ 
No  attempt  has  been  made,  therefore,  to  classify 
the  defectiveness  of  the  men  according  to  causes. 
The  relation  of  their  physical  condition  to  their 
economic  dependence  is  a  little  less  difficult  to 
trace  and  will  be  indicated  in  some  of  the  special 
studies  which  follow. 


43 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  CRIPPLED  AND  MAIMED 

TWO  hundred  and  fifty-four  men,  or  more  than 
a  fourth  of  the  one  thousand  studied,  were 
either  temporarily  or  permanently  crippled 
or  maimed.  The  disclosure  of  so  large  a  proportion 
of  handicapped  men  will  probably  provoke  ques- 
tions in  the  minds  of  most  readers,  both  as  to 
whether  a  similar  proportion  would  be  found  among 
other  thousands  of  the  homeless  and  shifting  popu- 
lation, and  as  to  what  may  have  been  the  causes 
and  what  are  the  effects  of  all  this  crippling  of  men. 
It  is  not  possible  to  compare  the  ratioof  crippled  and 
maimed  in  this  group  with  that  of  the  homeless  men 
at  large,  because  there  are  no  statistics  available 
in  regard  to  the  latter;  but  for  the  reasons  men- 
tioned in  a  previous  chapter,  there  is  little  question 
but  that  the  percentage  of  crippled  and  maimed 
is  larger  among  homeless  men  who  have  asked 
charity  than  it  would  be  found  to  be  among  home- 
less men  in  general;  a  fact  which  should  be  con- 
stantly kept  in  mind  lest  one  fall  into  the  error  of 
drawing  unwarranted  general  conclusions  from 
statistics  which  relate  only  to  a  particular,  and  in 
this  regard  a  peculiar,  group  of  men.  But  whether 

44 


THE   CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

or  not  the  number  of  cripples  per  thousand  is 
smaller  among  the  homeless  men  in  the  lodging 
houses  than  in  this  group,  the  causes  of  crippling 
and  the  ratios  in  which  they  appear,  and  the  indi- 
vidual and  social  results  of  it,  would  be  much 
the  same  wherever  homeless  men  might  be  studied. 
It  has,  therefore,  seemed  worth  while  to  study  with 
some  care  the  histories  of  these  254  crippled  men. 


MEN  CRIPPLED  BY  DISEASE 

Illness  was  found  to  be  responsible  for  a  very 
large  percentage  of  the  crippling  and  maiming  of 
this  quarter-regiment  of  men,  although  a  number 
who  were  in  fact  disabled  by  illness  claimed  to  have 
been  injured  in  industrial  or  general  accidents. 
Forty  men  were  paralytic;  21  had  muscles  so 
knotted  and  misshapen  from  rheumatism  that  they 
were  seriously  handicapped;  10  were  suffering 
from  locomotor  ataxia;  six  were  at  least  tempo- 
rarily crippled  by  venereal  diseases;  six  had  tu- 
berculous spines,  had  lost  limbs,  or  were  in  other 
ways  crippled  or  maimed  through  the  ravages  of 
tuberculosis,  and  three  were  crippled  by  other 
diseases.  Eighty-six  men  in  all,  or  34  per  cent  of 
the  254,  were  thus  crippled  or  maimed  by  dis- 
ease. 

Because  of  the  lack  of  information  on  the  records, 
it  is  not  possible  in  a  majority  of  these  cases  to  go 
behind  the  diseases  themselves  to  the  underlying 
causes  which  produced  them.  Among  the  men 

45 


HOMELESS    MEN 

TABLE  III.— GENERAL  DATA  CONCERNING  THE  86 
MEN  CRIPPLED  BY  DISEASE* 

A.  AGES,  BY  GROUPS  B.  CAUSES  OF  CRIPPLING 

Under  30 12       Paralysis 40 

30  to  39 17      Rheumatism 21 

40  to  49 23       Locomotor  ataxia 10 

50  to  59 19      Tuberculosis 6 

60  or  over 15       Venereal  diseases 6 

Other 3 

Total 86 

Total 86 

C.  AMOUNT  OF  SELF-SUPPORT 

(i)  Self-supporting  before  (2)  Self-supporting  after 

injury  injury 

Entirely 46      Entirely 3 

Partly 4      Partly 25 

Not  at  all 23      Not  at  all 58 

Not  known 13 

Total 86 

Total .  .  .86 


who  were  victims  of  paralysis,  locomotor  ataxia, 
and  venereal  diseases,  a  number  admitted  that 
their  habits  and  vices  had  alone  been  responsible 
for  their  present  physical  conditions.  Only  17 
of  the  56  men  suffering  from  these  three  forms  of 
disease  were,  or,  so  far  as  we  could  learn,  had  ever 
been  "hard  drinkers";  but  that  licentiousness  was 
a  cause  of  their  condition  in  many  cases  there  can 
be  but  slight  question,  even  though  our  investiga- 
tion of  the  previous  histories  of  the  men  was  not 
such  as  would  necessarily  disclose  the  existence  of 
that  vice./ 

In  the  cases  of  three  men  only  among  the  40 
paralytics  was  the  nature  of  the  work  in  which 
they  had  been  engaged  responsible  for  their 

*  See  also  Appendix  A,  Tables  7  and  8,  pp.  282  and  283. 

46 


THE   CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

disease.  Lead  poisoning  caused  the  paralysis  of 
two  men,  who  had  been  painters,  and  chronic 
bowel  disorder  caused  by  exposure  produced  it  in 
the  third,  who  had  been  a  soldier.  A  fourth  man 
claimed  to  be  suffering  from  telegrapher's  paraly- 
sis; but  since,  in  tracing  his  history  back  for 
fifteen  years,  we  were  unable  to  learn  that  he  had 
had  any  record  of  work,  and  since,  moreover,  he 
had  been  a  tramp  and  a  heavy  drinker  for  at  least 
that  number  of  years,  he  should  probably  be 
included  among  the  men  who  were  the  victims  of 
t^ierrjvices  rather  than  among  those  who  sacrificed 
heal tli  in  pursuance  of  their  daily  work. 

Twenty,  or  only  one-half,  of  the  paralytics  are 
known  to  have  been  entirely  self-supporting* 
previous  to  the  strokes  which  crippled  them.  Of 
the  remainder,  12  were  tramps  and  vagrants  and 
had  earned  little  or  none  of  their  own  support; 
two  had  been  partly  self-supporting;  one  had 
been  paralyzed  in  his  childhood,  and  of  five  we  do 
not  know  the  facts  as  to  self-support  before 
paralysis.  Following  their  paralysis,  31  were 
entirely  dependent,  seven  partly  self-supporting, 
and  only  two  were  able  by  peddling  to  be  indepen- 
dent. 

Among  the  21  men  crippled  by  rheumatism  were 
eight  whose  work  during  the  major  part  of  their 
lives  had  been  of  such  a  nature  that  it  probably 
caused  the  disease;  but  two  of  the  men  had  been 

*  For  data  concerning  amount  of  self-support  among  the  men 
crippled  by  disease,  see  Table  III,  and  Appendix  A,  Table  8,  p.  283. 

47 


HOMELESS    MEN 

tramps  for  several  years  prior  to  our  acquaintance 
with  them,  and  their  wanderings  may  have  been 
partly  responsible  for  their  crippled  limbs.  Four- 
teen of  the  rheumatic  cripples,  or  two-thirds  of 
the  whole  number,  had  good  work  records  and 
were  without  bad  habits,  a  larger  proportion  than 
was  the  case  among  the  paralytics.  Only  four 
men  were  drunkards,  one  was  an  opium  eater, 
and  two  were  tramps;  but  out  of  these  seven, 
four  had  had  excellent  work  records  before  they 
became  crippled.  Thirteen  of  the  rheumatic 
cripples  had  been  fully  self-supporting  before 
becoming  too  lame  to  work,  three  had  not  sup- 
ported themselves,  and  of  five  we  know  too  little 
to  make  positive  statements  on  this  point.  Since 
being  crippled  1 3  were  totally  dependent,  eight 
partly  self-supporting,  and  not  one  was  entirely 
self-supporting. 


MEN  CRIPPLED  BY  GENERAL  ACCIDENT  OR 
FROM  BIRTH 

Excluding  the  86  men  crippled  by  illness  there 
remained  five  who  had  been  born  crippled  and 
163  who  had  been  crippled  by  accidents  of  various 
sorts.  The  exact  nature  of  these  accidents  cannot 
be  given  in  every  instance,  because  the  victims  of 
them  were  frequently  tramps  and  vagrants, — men 
who  at  the  time  of  our  acquaintance  with  them 
had  already  become  parasitic  beggars, — and  it 
was  impossible  to  learn  the  truth  about  their 

48 


THE    CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

injuries.  Men  injured  while  tramping  claimed  to 
have  met  with  industrial  accidents;  men  injured 
in  drunken  brawls  in  saloons  claimed  to  have 
slipped  and  fallen  on  icy  sidewalks.  All  manner  of 
false  claims  were  made;  and  while  to  prove  that 
they  were  false  was  sometimes  not  very  difficult, 
it  was  exceedingly  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
learn  just  what  the  form  of  accident  was  which 
had  crippled  the  man.  Out  of  the  whole  number 
(254)  of  crippled  and  maimed,  55  men  (21.7  per 
cent)  claimed  to  have  met  with  industrial  acci- 
dents. A  larger  proportion  of  these  men  mis- 
represented the  facts  about  themselves  than  did 
any  other  class  of  the  crippled.  For  this,  and  for 
other  reasons,  it  has  seemed  best  to  study  the 
histories  of  these  55  men  in  a  separate  chapter,* 
and  their  cases  are  omitted  from  the  tables  and 
from  the  text  of  the  remainder  of  this  chapter. 
This  leaves  1 1  3  men  who  were  crippled  from  birth 
or  who  became  so  through  accidents  not  directly 
occupational. 

For  a  large  number  of  these  accidents,  neither 
society  nor  the  men  themselves  can  be  held  re- 
sponsible; they  were  accidents,  pure  and  simple, 
which  could  not  have  been  foreseen  or  prevented, 
and  cannot  be  charged  to  bad  industrial  conditions, 
to  indifference  on  the  part  of  authorities  to  the 
welfare  of  citizens,  nor  to  the  individual  careless- 
ness or  recklessness  of  the  men  who  suffered  them. 
In  almost  one-half  of  the  cases,  however,  the  men's 

*  See  Chapter  V,  Industrial  Accidents. 
4  49 


22 


TABLE  IV.— CAUSES  OF  CRIPPLING  (EXCLUDING  CASES 

WHERE  IT  WAS  CAUSED  BY  ILLNESS  OR  WHERE 

MEN  CLAIMED  INDUSTRIAL  ACCIDENTS) 

Number 
While  stealing  ride  or  "beating" 

way 13 

Hurt  on  As  passengers 4 

Railways       Walking  on  tracks 2 

Not   known    how    (tramping   sus- 
pected)     3 

Falls  of  various  sorts 18 

Accidents  in  childhood 7 

Born  crippled  or  maimed 5 

Street  car  accidents 6 

Runaway  horses 3 

Run  over  by  vehicles 2 

Injured  by  jumping  from  windows  during  hotel  fires.  ...     2 

Hurt  in  saloon  fights  while  intoxicated ! . .     2 

Hurt,  not  known  how,  while  intoxicated 2 

Flesh  tears  and  blood  poisoning  from  rusty  wire  and 

nail 2 

Bullet  wounds 2 

Feet  frozen 2 

Knocked  down  and  robbed  (arm  broken) 

Kicked  by  a  horse 

Struck  by  a  falling  timber 

Thumb  crushed  by  truck  falling  on  it 

Leg  amputated  after  a  battle  of  the  Civil  War 

Exact  cause  of  crippling  not  known 33* 

Total H3t 

*  Of  these  33  men  the  exact  cause  of  whose  crippling  is  not  known 
the  following  facts  are  of  interest:  Seventeen  were  men  who  are 
known  to  have  been  dependents,  tramps  or  beggars  for  a  number  of 
years  before  the  accidents  which  crippled  them  occurred.  Three 
were  quite  young  tramps  and  beggars  of  whom  too  little  is  known  to 
say  whether  their  crippled  condition  was  caused  by  their  vagrancy  or 
not;  no  work  record  could  be  discovered,  however,  and  injuries 
while  tramping  are  strongly  suspected.  Seven  men  with  broken 
arms  or  legs,  sprained  ankles  or  other  injuries  are  known  to  have  met 
with  general  and  not  industrial  accidents,  since  in  each  case  these 
occurred  when  the  men  were  unemployed.  Of  the  six  remaining 
cases  three  were  respectable  old  men,  three  self-respecting  and  self- 
supporting  younger  men.  Our  records  show  nothing  of  cause  of  in- 
jury in  these  six  cases  and  industrial  accidents  may  have  been  the 
causes  of  crippling  in  one  or  more  of  these  instances. 

fOf  these,  82  were  permanently  crippled;  31  temporarily  or  the 
extent  of  injury  not  known. 


THE    CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

habits  of  drink,  wandering,  and  vagrancy  must  be 
held  as  mainly  responsible  for  the  accidents  which 
crippled  them.  This  estimate  is  based  upon  a 
careful  study  of  the  records  of  the  men,  and 
includes  10  instances  in  which  men  admitted  that 
they  were  intoxicated  when  they  were  injured,  and 
15  trespassing  or  tramping  accidents  on  the  rail- 
roads. It  also  includes  a  number  of  other  cases 
where  the  men  were  habitual  drunkards  or  con- 
firmed tramps,  and  in  which  there  was  every 
reason  to  regard  individual  causes  as  responsible 
for  the  injuries  suffered.  For  instance,  one  of 
the  two  men  crippled  by  having  both  feet  frozen 
met  with  this  accident  while  locked  for  two  days 
in  a  box-car  in  which  he  was  stealing  a  ride  dur- 
ing a  spell  of  zero  weather. 

However,  whether  the  original  cause  of  this 
crippling  was  social  or  individual,  or  purely  acci- 
dental, a  man's  adjustment  to  his  changed  con- 
dition, and  his  ultimate  position  in  the  industrial 
world,  seem  to  depend  in  very  large  part  upon 
his  own  spirit  and  temperament  and  his  general 
attitude  toward  life.  The  man  who  was  a  vagrant 
and  a  tramp  before  his  injury  is  likely  to  be  one 
after  it,  and  will  often  use  his  handicap  as  his  most 
valuable  begging  asset.  The  man  who  was  a  worker 
will  in  most  cases  be  a  worker  still,  if  not  totally  in- 
capacitated by  his  injuries  or  overwhelmed  by  dire 
poverty  or  friendlessness.*  The  actual  amount  of 

*  For  table  showing  amount  of  self-support  before  and  after  injury 
of  the  113  men,  classified  by  length  of  time  since  accident,  see  Ap- 

5' 


HOMELESS   MEN 

his  physical  handicap  itself,  apparently,  has  less 
to  do  with  a  man's  failure  to  be  self-supporting 
after  an  accident,  than  those  qualities  within  him 
which  are  hard  to  describe  but  which  make  for 
character;  this  accounts  for  the  fact  that  three 
men  of  this  group  who  had  lost  both  legs  were 
fully  self-supporting,  and  that  five  who  had  lost 
one  or  two  fingers  were  parasitic  and  used  these 
comparatively  trifling  handicaps  as  excuses  for 
dependence.  Speaking  generally,  the  man  who 
earns  no  part  of  his  own  support  after  he  meets 
with  an  accident,  and  who  makes  no  effort  to  do  so, 
has  a  moral  lack  in  his  character  which  is  more 
truly  responsible  for  the  fact  of  his  vagrancy  than 
is  his  physical  lack  of  an  arm  or  a  leg. 

Among  the  cripples  living  in  the  cheap  lodging 
houses,  as  among  the  men  in  general,  some  will  be 
found  who  belong  to  each  of  the  four  main  classi- 
fications mentioned  in  the  opening  chapter.  Some 
will  be  continually  self-supporting;  others  will  be 
occasionally  or  temporarily  dependent,  but  may 
easily  be  brought  back  to  self-support;  others  are 
chronically  dependent  from  necessity;  and  still 
others  are  willing  parasites,  although  their  injuries 
may  be  slight  or  temporary.  Of  the  1 1 3  men 
crippled  by  general  accident  or  from  birth,  49 
belonged  to  the  temporarily  dependent  ("help- 
able")  class,  27  were  chronically  dependent,  31 

pendix  A,  Table  Q,  p.  284.  For  similar  data  concerning  82  men 
permanently  crippled,  classified  by  condition,  see  Appendix  A,  Table 
10,  p.  285. 

52 


THE    CRIPPLED   AND    MAIMED 

parasitic,  and  of  the  remaining  six  too  little  was 
known  to  classify.  As  might  be  expected  from 
the  fact  that  they  are  physically  handicapped, 
these  crippled  and  maimed  men,  more  frequently 
than  the  able-bodied,  shift  for  short  periods  from 
one  group  to  another.  The  processes  that  tend 
to  demoralize  and  force  them  into  the  lowest  class 
are  more  clearly  discernible  in  these  cases  than 
among  the  ab'e-bodied  men,  since  it  is  probable 
that  among  the  handicapped  the  causes  of  vagrancy 
in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  are  objective  rather 
than  subjective. 


HELPABLE  CRIPPLES 

None  of  the  1 1  3  men  who  were  cripples  from 
birth  or  who  became  so  through  general  accident 
could  be  considered  fully  self-supporting  at  the 
time  of  their  application  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities; 
but  study  of  the  records  shows  that  49  men  (43 
per  centof  the  number),  belonged  to  the"helpable" 
class  of  lodging  house  men.  They  were  readily 
helped  back  into  positions  of  self-support.  They 
did  not  require  continuous  assistance.  Nineteen 
had  friends  or  relatives  elsewhere  able  to  care  for 
them,  and  were  given  transportation  to  them. 
Of  these,  one  was  a  man  with  both  legs  amputated 
who  found  himself  unable  to  get  along  in  Chicago, 
although  in  his  native  city,  where  he  was  well 
known,  he  had  worked  up  a  paying  business  as  a 
bootblack.  Returning  this  man  to  his  home  took 

53 


HOMELESS    MEN 

him  out  of  the  lodging  house  district,  and  saved 
him  from  further  dependence.  A  boy  of  eighteen 
who  was  very  seriously  crippled  was  returned  to 
his  parents,  with  whom  he  has  since  remained. 
A  man  who  had  lost  his  left  leg  and  left  arm  was 
sent  to  friends  elsewhere,  who  gave  him  permanent 
employment.  In  Chicago  he  had  been  dependent. 
A  Negro  from  the  far  South,  brought  North 
with  others  to  take  the  place  of  strikers,  was 
accidentally  left  in  Chicago  when  the  rest  of  the 
carload  were  returned  by  the  company  that  had 
imported  them.  Unused  to  the  city,  and  handi- 
capped by  deformed  feet,  this  man  would  soon 
have  become  a  dependent  for  life  if  he  had  not, 
through  the  agency  of  the  Bureau,  been  returned 
to  the  South.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
trace  the  cases  today,  every  crippled  man  or  boy 
sent  by  the  Bureau  to  friends  or  relatives  was 
permanently  removed  from  the  city  lodging 
houses;  and,  undoubtedly,  the  prompt  removal 
of  these  19  men,  the  total  cost  of  whose  half-rate 
tickets  was  not  over  $100,  saved  some  from  per- 
manent vagrancy  and  all  from  much  needless 
suffering. 

The  story  of  one  other  man  in  this  group  is 
perhaps  worthy  of  fuller  mention,  since  it  illus- 
trates not  only  by  what  mere  chances  able-bodied 
men  may  suddenly  become  helpless  dependents, 
but  also  shows  how  possible  it  is,  even  in  very 
serious  cases,  to  save  such  men  from  chronic  depend- 
ence. A  trained  young  workman  came  to  Chicago 

54 


THE   CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

for  employment.  He  was  rather  above  the  grade 
of  the  average  lodging  house  man,  and  therefore 
looked  up  a  rooming  house  in  a  respectable  part  of 
town  and  had  his  trunk  sent  there  instead  of 
locating  in  the  downtown  part  of  the  city.  On  his 
way  to  promised  employment  the  day  after  his 
arrival,  he  climbed  onto  a  railroad  embankment 
which  lay  between  himself  and  the  factory  just 
beyond  the  tracks.  If  he  had  but  walked  a  block 
in  either  direction  he  might  have  passed  safely 
under  the  embankment,  but  this  he  did  not  know. 
Just  as  he  reached  the  top  his  hat  blew  off,  and 
without  a  glance  in  either  direction  he  sprang 
forward  to  catch  it.  As  he  did  so  he  was  struck 
by  an  express  train  and  hurled  many  feet.  When 
he  recovered  consciousness  at  the  County  Hospital, 
two  days  later,  he  found  that  one  leg  had  already 
been  amputated  and  that  the  use  of  his  right  arm 
was  gone.  Six  weeks  later  he  was  dismissed  from 
the  hospital,  and  made  his  way  with  difficulty  to 
his  rooming  place,  only  to  find  that  his  trunk  had 
long  before  been  sold  for  storage  and  that  the 
blood-stained  and  torn  garments  which  he  had  on 
were  his  only  possessions. 

Among  thousands  of  pitiful  cases  I  do  not  recall 
a  man  whose  mental  anguish  was  greater  than  this 
man's  when  he  first  realized  that  at  twenty-eight 
he  was  crippled  for  life,  and  that  at  that  mo- 
ment he  was  penniless  in  a  strange  city,  where  he 
must  either  ask  charitable  help  or  die.  No  care 
and  tactfulness  of  ours  was  able  to  lessen  the 

55 


HOMELESS    MEN 

bitterness  of  grief,  the  agony  of  humiliation  which 
he  suffered.  It  was  some  time  before  we  could 
persuade  him  to  return  to  the  little  eastern  city 
from  which  he  came.  He  had  left  it  full  of  strength, 
energy,  and  health,  and  the  thought  of  returning 
to  be  a  burden  upon  his  old  mother  or  friends,  or 
to  enter  in  time  the  local  poorhouse,  was  more 
than  he  could  endure.  But  in  Chicago  his  only 
alternative  was  to  beg  upon  the  streets, — being  a 
non-resident  he  was  not  eligible  for  admission  to 
the  Cook  County  poorhouse. 

Until  replies  to  our  letters  to  the  East  (which  by 
several  mischances  were  long  delayed)  could  be 
received,  the  Bureau  of  Charities  furnished  food 
and  lodging.  A  peg  leg  (made  for  him  by  a 
sympathetic  carpenter  in  the  lodging  house)  and 
a  cane,  soon  enabled  him  to  walk  without  crutches, 
and  a  famous  surgeon  who  was  consulted  about  the 
right  arm  gave  promise  of  the  ultimate  return  of 
part  of  its  usefulness.  The  letters  written  to  the 
superintendent  of  the  Associated  Charities  of  the 
man's  home  town,  enlisted  his  interest  and  help; 
and  when,  four  months  from  the  date  of  his 
accident,  the  man  was  given  half-rate  transporta- 
tion back  to  his  home,  he  went  knowing  that  light 
work  awaited  him  on  his  arrival,  and  that  he  need 
not  be  wholly  dependent.  During  the  current 
winter,  in  answer  to  a  letter  of  inquiry,  the  writer 
has  learned  that  this  man  has  been  entirely  self- 
supporting  throughout  the  eight  years  since  his 
return. 

56 


THE   CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

Equally  successful  results  followed  the  giving  of 
prompt  and  adequate  assistance  to  certain  helpable 
cripples  who  were  not  sent  out  of  the  city.  A  well 
chosen  peddler's  outfit  made  two  of  these,  each 
of  whom  had  lost  an  arm,  self-supporting  for  as 
long  a  period  as  we  were  able  to  follow  them.  For 
a  man  of  sixty-seven,  with  an  injured  hip,  who 
was  able  to  earn  a  very  small  part  of  his  own  sup- 
port, the  Bureau  secured  from  a  sister  in  England 
a  pension  of  $5.00  a  month  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  Various  forms  of  assistance  were  given  to 
others. 

Altogether,  in  the  cases  of  35  men  out  of  the 
49  of  the  "helpable"  type  of  cripples,  there  is  a 
reasonable  basis  for  belief  that  the  aid  given  at 
a  critical  time  in  their  lives  permanently  saved 
them  from  further  dependence  upon  society  and 
from  vagrancy,  since  in  almost  every  instance  it 
was  the  man's  self-respect  which  hung  in  the  bal- 
ance, as  well  as  his  economic  independence. 

For  12  of  the  other  14  apparently  helpable  men, 
there  is  more  of  a  question  as  to  ultimate  results, 
since  they  were  known  to  the  office  for  periods 
ranging  only  from  one  day  to  three  or  four  weeks, 
when  they  dropped  out  of  sight  and  their  subse- 
quent histories  could  not  be  followed.  Only  of 
the  remaining  two  men  must  known  failure  be 
reported.  One,  a  Negro,  had  apparently  when 
we  knew  him  been  helped  back  to  a  position 
of  self-support,  but  has  been  unable  to  hold  his 
own  and  is  today  a  tramp  and  a  vagrant.  In  the 

57 


HOMELESS   MEN 

other  case,  for  two  years  we  watched  and  worked 
against  the  gradual  deterioration  of  a  really  fine 
man;  but  the  odds  against  him  in  the  struggle  for 
independence  were  very  great,  and  association 
with  idlers  and  beggars  in  the  lodging  houses 
finally  converted  him  into  one  of  their  number. 
We  failed  utterly  to  save  this  man;  but  I  have 
included  him  with  the  helpable  cripples,  because  I 
believe  that  he  had  enough  of  self-respect  and 
ability  when  he  first  applied  to  the  Bureau  for  help 
to  have  been  saved  in  the  end  if  we  could  have 
found  the  right  sort  of  work  for  him  and  if  he 
could  have  been  removed  in  time  from  the  morally 
poisonous  atmosphere  of  the  lodging  houses. 


CHRONICALLY  DEPENDENT  CRIPPLES 

Twenty-seven  men  in  the  group  of  1 1 3  were  at  the 
time  of  their  applications  to  the  Bureau  totally  and 
continuously  dependent  but  not  parasitic  in  spirit. 
Eight  of  these  men  were,  with  the  Bureau's  help, 
made  self-supporting  for  a  time,  but  soon  became 
dependent  and  remained  so  for  the  rest  of  their 
lives.  I  n  the  case  of  five  other  chronic  dependents 
the  burden  of  support  was  placed  upon  relatives 
at  a  distance,  or  upon  the  communities  elsewhere 
of  which  they  were  legal  residents.  One  of  these 
men  had  left  the  poorhouse  at  Milwaukee  and 
come  to  Chicago  because  he  had  the  idea,  which 
seems  to  be  held  all  over  America,  that  no  matter 
how  unfit  a  man  may  be,  "any  one  can  find  work 

58 


THE    CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

in  Chicago."  Another  was  a  deaf  mute  who  had 
frozen  both  feet.  He  was  sent  to  relatives  in  New 
York. 

A  large  percentage  of  these  chronically  depend- 
ent cripples  had  an  additional  handicap  of  some 
kind  which  accounted  for  their  total  dependence. 
Two  were  over  seventy  years  of  age,  seven  were 
between  sixty  and  seventy,  and  two  between  fifty 
and  sixty.  Age  alone  might  not  have  incapaci- 
tated these  latter;  but,  as  in  addition  they  were  per- 
manently crippled,  complete  self-support  proved 
to  be  impossible.  Two  men  of  this  group  were 
epileptic  as  well  as  crippled,  two  were  mildly 
insane,  one  was  feeble-minded,  and  one  very  dull 
mentally.  One  was  a  deaf  mute,  and  five  had 
tuberculosis  or  some  other  chronic  illness  which 
seriously  affected  them. 

Several  men  in  this  group  showed  the  results  of 
failure  to  receive  needed  help  at  the  beginning  of 
their  difficulties.  Here  is  a  typical  story  of  one 
man  whose  dependence  was  due  to  this  cause. 
He  had  always  been  fully  self-supporting  previous 
to  the  accident  in  which  he  lost  one  leg  just  below 
the  hip.  After  the  accident  he  became  a  street 
beggar,  but  never  overcame  an  intolerable  sense 
of  shame  and  degradation.  The  man  who  sits  on 
a  public  street  with  his  hat  before  him  and  begs 
would  seem,  to  most  people,  to  be  more  shameless 
and  hardened  in  his  profession  than  the  man  who 
asks  for  a  night's  lodging  at  the  door;  but  this 
particular  street  beggar  said  that  he  himself  had 

59 


HOMELESS   MEN 

chosen  the  former  method  because  it  saved  him 
from  the  shame  of  asking  for  help.  "When  I  sit 
there,  anyone  can  see  that  I  am  helpless;  I  do  not 
have  to  speak." 

Although  this  man  had  been  begging  for  four 
years  at  the  time  he  came  to  the  attention  of  the 
Bureau,  he  had  never  become  hardened  to  the 
practice,  and  when  offered  adequate  help  if  he 
would  stop  it  and  co-operate  in  our  effort  to  make 
him  self-supporting,  he  instantly  agreed  and  kept 
his  promise  even  when  by  begging  he  could  have 
increased  from  four  to  ten-fold  the  meager  earnings 
which  he  made  during  the  two  years  of  attempted 
self-support  through  which  he  struggled.  Help 
had  come  too  late.  The  artificial  leg  which  was 
furnished  him  through  the  Bureau  should  have 
been  received  four  years  earlier,  before  the  muscles 
of  the  stump  had  become  flabby  and  almost  useless. 
He  learned  in  time  to  walk  without  crutches  but 
never  without  a  cane,  and  he  always  limped  badly, 
which  made  it  difficult  to  secure  work  for  him. 
Possible  employers  frankly  told  the  writer  that 
while  they  would  be  glad  to  help  the  man,  the  risk 
of  accident  to  a  cripple  in  a  factory  is  so  great  that 
they  could  not  afford  to  take  it,  lest  a  law-suit 
for  damages  be  the  sequel  of  an  attempt  to  "mix 
philanthropy  and  business."  Through  personal 
influence  and  with  difficulty,  three  positions  in 
different  factories  where  he  might  work  seated 
were  secured  for  the  man  during  a  period  of  a  year 
and  a  half;  but  each,  for  reasons  not  connected 

60 


THE    CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

with  his  ability  or  persistence,  was  lost.  A  part- 
nership in  a  small  shop  was  then  secured,  which 
bid  fair  for  a  time  to  solve  his  difficulties;  but  this 
had  to  be  given  up  on  account  of  the  failing  health 
of  the  man  himself.  Exposure,  lack  of  food,  and 
the  unsanitary  conditions  in  the  lodging  houses 
during  the  years  before  help  came  to  him  had 
done  their  work,  and  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  his 
plucky  fight  for  independence  and  go  to  the  only 
haven  for  such  wounded  soldiers — the  county 
poorhouse,  where  he  died  of  tuberculosis  two 
months  later.  Every  step  in  the  history  of  this 
man's  life,  both  before  and  after  his  accident, 
would  indicate  that  if  he  had  been  given  the  aid  he 
needed  immediately  after  the  accident,  he  might 
have  been  saved  for  many  years  of  usefulness. 

The  importance  of  prompt  and  adequate  relief 
of  some  sort  in  the  case  of  every  self-respecting 
cripple  condemned  to  live  in  a  lodging  house  can- 
not be  overestimated.  The  development  of  our 
awakened  social  conscience  will,  undoubtedly,  lead 
in  time  to  the  passage  of  laws  and  to  the  adoption 
of  methods  in  all  states  which  will  insure  both 
better  protection  from  accidents  and  needed  sup- 
port for  the  injured  after  accidents  occur.  In  the 
meantime,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  men  suffering 
from  general  accidents  today  are  to  be  provided 
for  except  by  means  of  an  intelligent  administra- 
tion of  adequate  charitable  relief.  So  long  as  our 
hospitals  dismiss  cripples  without  an  inquiry  as 
to  how  they  shall  subsist  after  leaving;  so  long  as 

61 


HOMELESS    MEN 

municipal  lodging  houses,  industrial  homes,  wood 
yards,  and  other  charitable  agencies  which  come 
in  touch  with  these  men  after  their  dismissals 
from  hospitals,  are  content  to  furnish  a  night's 
lodging  or  a  day  or  two  of  inadequate  work  and 
then  allow  the'  men  to  drift  on;  and  so  long  as 
the  few  charities  in  the  country  which  attempt  to 
deal  adequately  and  humanely  with  them  are  sorely 
handicapped  by  lack  of  means,  by  the  indifference 
of  the  public,  and  by  the  unwillingness  of  em- 
ployers to  give  the  men  such  work  as  they  are 
able  to  do,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  there  can  be 
much  change  for  the  better  in  the  conditions  under 
which  the  homeless  crippled  and  maimed  now  live. 

PARASITIC  CRIPPLES 

With  men  as  seriously  handicapped  as  are  some 
of  the  mendicant  cripples  seen  on  the  streets,  it  is 
sometimes  a  question  as  to  how  far  they  may  be 
able  to  contribute  to  their  own  support,  even  if 
they  are  willing  to  make  the  effort.  But  when 
numerous  opportunities  to  earn  at  least  a  part  of 
their  living  are  offered  such  men  and  refused, 
there  is  no  question  but  that  the  begging  is  con- 
tinued from  choice  and  not  from  necessity. 

Among  the  1 1  3  men  crippled  by  general  acci- 
dent or  from  birth,  31  were  of  this  type.  Three  had 
lost  both  legs, — too  serious  a  handicap  to  make  self- 
support  possible,  one  may  say.  One  of  these,  a 
young  lad,  had  parents  able  and  willing  to  care 

62 


THE   CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

for  him  but  he  preferred  to  beg.  Another  had 
artificial  legs,  and  training  in  a  trade  in  which,  by 
his  own  admission,  he  could  have  earned  his 
living  had  he  so  chosen.  The  third  man  had 
received  large  damages  from  the  railway  company 
responsible  for  his  injury,  but  had  squandered 
the  money  and  made  no  effort  to  find  employment, 
although  he  was  well  educated  and  could  un- 
doubtedly have  supported  himself  by  some  form 
of  clerical  work.  This  man  took  to  begging  at 
once  and  apparently  without  even  a  passing  sense 
of  shame,  and  he  refused  to  give  up  the  practice, 
although  offered  his  full  support  until  a  position 
could  be  found  for  him. 

We  were  not  able  in  a  single  case  to  win  a  man 
of  this  group  of  parasitic  cripples  back  to  a  position 
of  self-support,  although  the  injuries  of  four  were 
temporary  and  of  10  very  slight.  Every  one  of 
the  31  listed  as  parasitic  was  offered  at  least  one 
opportunity  for  self-support;  several  of  them 
many;  but  all  refused  work  because  they  could 
make  more  money  and  make  it  more  easily  by 
begging.  Not  that  the  men  themselves  always  put 
it  in  that  way;  a  few  claimed  to  prefer  self-support 
to  vagrancy,  but  these  invariably  found  some 
excuse  for  giving  up  every  position  in  which  they 
were  placed,  and  in  a  few  weeks'  time  returned 
to  their  old  begging  stands  and  would  make  no 
further  effort  for  independence. 

Some  men  claimed  to  be  begging  only  to  secure 
money  for  an  artificial  leg,  saying  they  would  go  to 

63 


HOMELESS    MEN 

work  after  obtaining  one,  but  in  no  case  when  a 
leg  had  been  purchased  did  the  begging  cease. 
An  earnest  recital  of  a  desire  to  work  as  soon  as  an 
artificial  leg  is  secured  proves  to  be  productive  of 
such  good  results  in  the  form  of  contributions  from 
the  public,  that  it  is  the  favorite  begging  story  of 
many  one-legged  mendicants.  One  man  who  is 
still  known  to  the  Bureau  has  used  the  story  for 
eleven  consecutive  years,  during  which  he  has  re- 
ceived money  enough  to  purchase  scores  of  legs. 
Not  a  few  mendicant  cripples  who  own  artificial 
legs  wear  them  by  day  and  unstrap  them  and  beg 
on  the  streets  at  night.  There  were  even  two  in- 
stances in  Chicago  where  men  wore  their  artificial 
legs  and  were  employed  during  the  day  but  begged 
at  the  theatre  doors  at  night. 

Five  men  in  this  group  had  no  more  serious 
physical  defect  than  the  loss  of  from  one  to  three 
fingers, — in  two  cases  from  the  right  hand,  in 
three,  from  the  left;  a  sixth  man  had  a  broken 
finger;  but  all  six  based  their  pleas  for  charitable 
assistance  upon  these  comparatively  slight  handi- 
caps. Five  of  the  six,  all  but  the  man  with  the 
broken  finger,  were  well  educated  men  for  whom 
there  was  no  apparent  excuse  for  dependence. 
They  were  distinctly  degenerate,  and  had  been 
beggars  and  tramps  almost  from  boyhood.  Two 
were  addicted  to  the  drug  habit  and  two  were  heavy 
drinkers. 

In  the  two  groups  (helpable  and  chronically 
dependent  cripples)  previously  discussed,  there 

64 


THE   CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

were  a  number  of  men  who  were  dependen  t  because 
of  their  injuries,  but  in  only  one  instance  in  this 
third  group  had  a  man  descended  to  the  ranks  of 
the  parasites  since  and  chiefly  on  account  of  his 
handicap.  F.ven  in  this  case  the  injury  was,  per- 
haps, only  indirectly  responsible  for  his  downfall, 
which  came  about  not  for  lack  of  help  at  the  time 
of  his  accident,  but  rather  because  of  the  receipt  of 
too  large  an  amount  of  material  aid  at  once.  He 
was  a  Negro  laborer  whose  left  arm  was  partly 
paralyzed  through  a  railroad  accident.  He  re- 
ceived $200  from  the  railroad  company,  which 
was  the  largest  amount  he  had  ever  possessed  at 
one  time.  He  spent  it  as  rapidly  as  possible,  for 
drink  and  carousing,  and  when  it  was  exhausted, 
unable  to  stand  again  in  the  ranks  as  a  laborer,  he 
became  a  drunkard  and  a  tramp-vagrant. 

Six  men  out  of  the  1 1 3  were  known  to  the  office 
too  slightly  and  for  too  short  a  time  to  make  pos- 
sible any  definite  classification  of  their  status  [or 
habits.  Of  these,  however,  two  were  known  to  be 
tramps,  and  the  stones  of  all  six  were  either  false 
or  unconfirmable,  so  it  is  probable  that  these  too 
must  be  added  to  the  group  of  parasitic  cripples. 

Several  questions  will  naturally  arise  in  the 
minds  of  people  after  reading  thus  far:  "  How  can 
we  tell  to  which  class  the  cripple  who  applies  to 
us  belongs?  We  do  not  wish  to  help  lazy  im- 
postors who  could  get  employment  or  have  other 
means  of  support;  but  if,  after  all,  only  31  or 
5  65 


HOMELESS    MEN 

possibly  37  out  of  a  group  of  1 1  3  men  belong  to 
this  latter  class,  shall  we  then  not  risk  doing  greater 
harm  to  the  majority  of  cripples  in  need  by  refusing 
aid  to  all  than  by  giving  to  all?"  These  questions 
have  been  put  to  the  writer  so  many  times  that  it 
is  evident  they  must  vex  many  sympathetic  and 
conscientious  people.  The  instinctive  desire  to 
help  in  some  way  causes  them  to  revolt  from  the 
negative  mandate  of  certain  pseudo-scientific 
workers,  who  say  "do  not  give,"  and  who  yet  offer 
no  substitute  for  giving. 

As  a  rule,  but  one  answer  can  be  made  to  the 
first  question.  The  ordinary  citizen  cannot  know 
merely  by  interviewing  a  beggar  to  what  class  he 
belongs,  and  to  what  extent,  if  at  all,  he  should  be 
aided.  If  definite  knowledge  is  desired, — and  it  is 
the  only  basis  of  intelligent  help, — investigation  of 
the  case  had  better  be  turned  over  to  specially 
trained  experts,  of  whom  there  are  a  few  in  almost 
every  city  of  the  Union.  These  men  and  women 
have  met  and  dealt  with  hundreds  of  applicants 
where  the  ordinary  citizen  has  known  but  few,  and 
these  few,  as  a  rule,  rather  superficially. 

As  to  the  second  question,  there  is  a  fallacy  in 
the  argument  of  "helping  the  unworthy  lest  the 
worthy  be  missed"  which  many  people  fail  to 
recognize.  It  lies  in  the  supposition  that  the 
"worthy"  man  to  whom  a  few  cents  or  even  a  few 
dollars  are  given,  is  really  helped  by  such  aid. 
Assistance  in  finding  employment,  support  until 
employed,  removal  from  lodging  house  environ- 

66 


THE    CRIPPLED   AND   MAIMED 

ment,  surgical  care,  and  general  friendly  interest, 
these  are  the  things  he  needs.  They  may  be  fur- 
nished by  anyone  sufficiently  interested  to  supply 
l hem,  even  better,  perhaps,  than  by  a  charity  or- 
ganization society  which,  on  account  of  the  large 
number  of  persons  with  whom  it  deals,  cannot  give 
as  much  time  to  following  up  the  necessities  of  t  he- 
particular  applicant  as  can  a  private  individual. 

But  if,  for  lack  of  means  or  lack  of  time  on  the 
one  hand,  or  through  a  feeling  of  inexperience  on 
the  other  hand,  the  ordinary  citizen  hesitates  him- 
self to  take  active  steps  for  the  man's  restoration 
to  usefulness,  and  is  unwilling  to  ignore  his  condi- 
tion, he  may  refer  him  to  the  Chanty  Organiza- 
tion Society,  or  to  whatever  agency  is  doing  similar 
work  in  a  similar  way  in  his  own  city. 

To  refer  the  cripple  to  such  a  society,  however, 
and  to  do  nothing  more  will  probably  help  him  as 
little  as  would  the  gift  of  a  small  dole,  because  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  man  will  either  promise  to 
go  and  then  not  go,  or  he  will  say  that  he  has  been 
there  and  that  nothing  was  done  for  him.  This 
latter  statement  is  usually  not  true  and  should  be 
verified.  If  the  citizen  cannot  spare  time  to 
accompany  the  man,  he  should  telephone  or  write 
a  letter  saying  where  he  found  him  begging,  if  a 
beggar,  and  include  a  slight  description,  and  if 
possible,  an  outline  of  his  story.  This  will  enable 
the  agent  of  the  society  to  report  at  once  if  the 
applicant  is  known  to  the  office,  and,  should  he 
fail  to  appear,  to  find  him  later.  The  one-legged 


HOMELESS   MEN 

street  beggar  whose  story  is  given  on  page  59, 
told  the  writer  that  at  least  50  people  had  referred 
him  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities  during  the  four 
years  of  his  dependence.  When  asked  why  he 
had  not  come  he  replied  that  he  had  not  supposed 
the  Bureau  could  do  anything  for  him; — it  would 
not  help  him  to  be  referred  to  a  wood  yard,  which 
was  where  he  thought  single  men  were  usually 
sent;  and  he  "knew  it  would  not  be  right"  to  ask 
for  entire  support,  "no  society  could  afford  to 
give  that,"  and  he  had  thought  that  we  might  pub- 
lish his  name  as  a  pauper,  which  was  something 
he  could  not  endure,  even  if  he  had  "got  pretty  low 
down."  It  required  the  assurance  that  his  name 
would  not  be  published,  the  promise  of  a  personal 
letter  to  the  superintendent,  and  the  touch  of 
personal  interest  shown  by  the  gentleman  who 
had  seen  him  begging,  before  this  cripple  followed 
the  advice  that  he  had  so  often  received. 

After  a  man  has  finally  reached  the  office  and 
his  story  has  been  thoroughly  investigated, — not 
to  find  out  whether  it  is  true,  but  to  gain  as  much 
knowledge  of  his  character  and  abilities  as  it  is 
possible  to  secure, — a  plan  for  the  permanent 
improvement  of  his  condition  may  be  worked  out 
by  the  trained  agent  and  the  interested  citizen; 
and  in  carrying  out  this  plan,  if  the  man  prove 
to  be  helpable,  the  citizen  will  find  opportunity  to 
expend  as  much  of  his  time  and  money  as  he  can 
afford  to  give  and  as  the  case  requires. 


68 


CHAPTER  V 

INDUSTRIAL  ACCIDENTS   IN    RELATION 
TO  VAGRANCY 

TH  E  promptness  with  which  vagrants  in  lodg- 
ing houses  take  advantage  of  any  occurrence 
which  will  furnish  them  with  a  new  or  pop- 
ular story  to  use  in  appealing  for  help,  is  a  matter 
for  surprise  even  to  persons  familiar  with  the  class. 
Most  of  these  men  are  well  informed  about  current 
events  and  many  of  them  are  inveterate  newspaper 
readers.     They  are  quick  to  notice  and  to  make 
use  of  any  item  which  suggests  a  new  form  of 
appeal. 

After  every  great  calamity,  such  as  the  Galves- 
ton  flood,  the  Baltimore  fire,  or  the  San  Francisco 
earthquake,  alleged  "victims"  make  their  appear- 
ance in  various  parts  of  the  country.  When  the 
Klondike  region  was  much  in  the  minds  of  people, 
unfortunate  Klondikers  appeared  in  large  numbers. 
After  the  Iroquois  Theatre  fire  in  Chicago, 
"stranded  actors"  who  had  never  stood  behind  the 
footlights,  applied  for  aid.  Similarly,  any  much 
discussed  subject  in  newspapers  or  magazines  is 
immediately  seized  upon  and  utilized.  After  the 
appearance  of  the  statement  attributed  to  Dr. 

69 


HOMELESS   MEN 

Osier  that  men  over  sixty  should  be  chloroformed, 
there  was  a  marked  increase  for  a  few  weeks  in 
the  number  of  men  past  that  age  who  applied  to 
the  Bureau  of  Charities,  and  many  of  them  referred 
to  Dr.  Osier's  alleged  dictum.  Likewise,  the  cam- 
paign against  tuberculosis  which  has  been  given  so 
much  publicity  in  newspapers  and  magazines  has 
caused  many  a  sound-lunged  vagrant  to  claim  to 
be  afflicted  with  the  White  Plague.  This  is  an 
especially  popular  disease  among  those  who  appeal 
for  special  transportation  rates  to  the  West.  In 
the  same  way  the  numerous  articles  which  have 
appeared  in  recent  years  upon  the  prevalence  of 
industrial  accidents  in  the  United  States  and  their 
alleged  importance  as  a  cause  of  vagrancy,  have 
led  many  tramp-cripples  to  use  stories  of  indus- 
trial accidents  as  a  ground  for  special  appeals  for 
help. 

Such  stories  have  apparently  proved  far  more 
effective  in  soliciting  sympathy  and  aid  than 
would  the  recital  of  the  mere  facts  regarding  their 
accidents.  So  quick  are  these  men  to  follow 
suggestion  in  the  stories  they  tell  that  every  claim 
of  an  industrial  accident  made  by  a  homeless  man 
should  be  thoroughly  investigated.  Otherwise  sta- 
tistics on  the  relation  between  such  accidents  and 
vagrancy,  from  whatever  source  they  may  come, 
cannot  be  relied  upon  as  accurate. 

Fifty-five  out  of  the  254  crippled  or  maimed  men 
in  this  thousand  claimed  to  have  met  with  injuries 
while  at  work  and  connected  with  that  work. 

70 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

Assuming  that  these  55  were  what  they  claimed  to 
be, — victims  of  work  accidents, — it  is  evident  that 
about  four  out  of  five  crippled  vagrants  came  to 
their  injuries  elsewhere  than  at  work.  But  this 
proportion  of  55  to  2 54  cannot  be  accepted,  because 
the  claims  of  these  55  men  are  not  sustained  by 
the  facts.  In  28  out  of  the  55  cases  every  effort 
was  made  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the  men's  state- 
ments about  the  accidents.  Of  these  28,  in  only 
six  cases  were  we  able  to  prove  that  such  accidents 
had  actually  occurred.  Of  the  remaining  22,  in 
two  instances  we  lacked  sufficient  data  to  prove 
the  men's  stories:  in  four  cases  letters  were  unan- 
swered; two  men  gave  false  addresses;  12  were 
entirely  unknown  to  the  companies  where  they 
claimed  to  have  worked;  while  in  one  instance  an 
employer  knew  the  man  but  no  such  accident  as 
claimed  had  occurred  at  the  foundry  mentioned, 
and  in  still  another  the  accident  had  occurred  as 
stated,  but  the  man  was  a  trespasser  and  not  an 
employe.* 

In  the  investigations  we  did  not  depend  entirely 
upon  the  statements  made  by  employers  but 
attempted  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  claims  of  the 
men  in  many  other  ways.  The  following  stories 
will  perhaps  show  more  plainly  than  can  readily 
be  described,  both  the  methods  of  investigation 
used  and  the  types  of  stories  which  were  told  by 

*  With  regard  to  the  general  statements  made  by  the  28  men 
whose  cases  were  investigated,  these  were  found  to  be  true  in  13  cases, 
false  in  1 1  cases,  and  the  statements  of  4  of  the  men  could  not  be 
verified. 

71 


HOMELESS   MEN 

the  22  men  whose  claims  were  either  proved  to  be 
false  or  whose  histories  showed  that  the  accidents 
did  not  occur  as  claimed. 

E.  M.,  a  man  of  forty,  claimed  to  have  been  an 
engineer  on  the  -  -  Railroad  and  to  have  lost 
his  left  arm  in  a  collision  occurring  at  a  certain 
time  and  place  in  the  state  of  Washington.  By 
his  prompt  action  in  emergency  he  said  that  he 
had  saved  the  lives  of  63  people.  He  said  that  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive 
Engineers  and  "well  known  to  railroad  men."  He 
stated  that  the  railroad  company  had  done  nothing 
for  him,  and  that  he  was  suing  it  for  large  damages, 
the  case  being  then  in  the  hands  of  a  "prominent 
lawyer"  in  St.  Paul,  whose  name  he  gave  us.  He 
also  gave  us  the  name  of  the  physician  in  Spokane 
who  had  amputated  his  arm. 

Statement  by  statement  this  detailed  story  was 
disproved.  There  had  never  been  an  accident  on 
the  Railroad  at  the  place  mentioned; 

neither  had  there  been  one  anywhere  on  the 
line  in  the  month  and  year  mentioned.  The  man's 
name  was  not  registered  as  an  engineer,  nor  as  an 
employe  in  any  capacity,  in  any  division  of  the 
railroad.  Neither  could  we  learn  that  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  En- 
gineers. The  physician  said  to  have  treated  him 
in  Spokane  was  unknown  in  that  city,  nor  was 
there  a  lawyer,  prominent  or  otherwise,  of  the 
name  he  had  given,  listed  in  the  St.  Paul  directory; 
and  no  such  suit  was  then  pending.  The  man  was 

72 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

a  peddler  of  small  notions  who  probably  used 
peddling  as  a  screen  for  begging.  His  apparent 
familiarity  with  cities  all  through  the  Northwest 
led  us  to  suspect  that  he  was  a  confirmed  tramp, 
and  that  he  had  lost  his  arm  in  the  course  of  his 
travels. 

A  second  man,  aged  twenty-three,  asked  the 
office  to  furnish  his  meals  for  the  next  ten  days 
at  some  restaurant,  after  which  he  felt  sure  that 
an  injury  to  his  right  leg  would  be  sufficiently 
healed  to  allow  him  to  return  to  work,  when  he 
would  repay  all  that  had  been  advanced.  This 
man  had  a  straightforward  way  of  talking  and 
appeared  to  be  quite  honest  in  his  story,  which 
was  to  the  effect  that  he  had  been  hurt  while  in 
the  employ  of  the  -  -  Elevated  Railroad,  some 
months  before.  He  claimed  that  the  company 
had  done  nothing  for  him,  he  having  even  paid 
his  own  way  in  the  hospital  until  his  money  gave 
out.  He  said  that  he  had  entered  suit  against  the 
company  and  that  his  lawyer,  a  man  of  the  name 
of  -  -  in  the  Monadnock  Block,  thought  the 
prospect  of  winning  it  was  good. 

There  chanced  to  be  a  lawyer  in  the  Monadnock 
Block  of  the  name  mentioned,  but  he  knew  nothing 
of  this  man  and  had  no  case  for  any  client  against 
the  elevated  road.  He  suggested  that  the  case 
might  be  in  the  hands  of  his  brother,  who  also 
was  a  lawyer,  and  who  had  offices  in  the  Unity 
Building.  This  gentleman  knew  nothing  of  the 
case,  nor  did  another  of  the  same  name  in  another 

73 


HOMELESS   MEN 

building,  nor  was  his  case  known  to  the  only  other 
lawyer  of  that  name  in  Chicago,  who  was  also 
interviewed.  Further  investigation  proved  that 
no  such  suit  had  been  brought  against  the  - 
Elevated  Company,  and  at  the  hospital  we  learned 
that  the  man  had  been  a  charity-  and  not  a  pay- 
patient,  and  that  far  from  suffering  from  the 
results  of  an  accident,  he  was  temporarily  crippled 
by  a  syphilitic  ulcer  on  his  leg!  The  man  himself 
admitted  this  later  and  owned  that  he  had  been  a 
rover  for  ten  years  and  had  never  worked  any- 
where. 

A  third  man  claimed  to  have  met  with  an  acci- 
dent while  in  the  employ  of  a  certain  railway,  but 
we  found  that  he  had  been  injured  while  "lying 
asleep  drunk  on  the  tracks."  Another,  who 
claimed  to  have  lost  a  leg  and  an  arm  in  a  stone 
quarry  accident,  described  the  quarry  at  his  first 
call  as  in  Montana  and  a  year  later  as  in  New 
Hampshire.  Every  reference  or  clue  that  he  gave 
in  each  interview  was  carefully  followed  up,  but 
beyond  ascertaining  that  he  was  a  confirmed 
tramp,  nothing  very  definite  could  be  learned 
regarding  him,  and  in  this  case,  as  in  a  number  of 
other  alleged  work-accident  cases,  tramping  injuries 
were  strongly  suspected.* 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  out  of  the  55  men 
who  claimed  to  be  suffering  from  injuries  received 

*  In  1 3  cases,  or  very  nearly  a  fourth  of  those  where  work-accidents 
were  claimed,  the  histories  of  the  men,  as  revealed  by  investigation, 
strongly  indicated  that  they  had  met  with  their  injuries  on  the  rail- 
roads while  tramping. 

74 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

while  at  work,  an  attempt  to  verify  their  state- 
ments concerning  the  accidents  was  made  in  only 
half  the  cases  (28  out  of  55).  These  were  almost 
all  cases  in  which  the  accident  was  of  comparatively 
recent  occurrence,  and  where  the  truth  as  to  its 
exact  nature,  the  damages  received,  and  other 
matters  concerning  it,  were  felt  to  bear  sufficient 
relation  to  the  man's  present  problem,  and  to  the 
treatment  of  his  case,  to  warrant  careful  investiga- 
tion of  the  accident  itself.  When  the  injuries 
which  crippled  him  had  been  received  from  ten  to 
twenty  or  more  years  before, — and  when,  perhaps, 
he  frankly  admitted  the  receipt  of  damages  which 
were  now  exhausted,  or  the  promise  of  life  em- 
ployment, all  claim  to  which  he  had  forfeited  by 
his  own  acts, — a  man's  statements  on  these  points 
were  accepted,  and  only  matters  more  recently  and 
vitally  connected  with  his  case  were  investigated. 
It  is  probable  that  in  almost  every  instance  where 
a  man  claimed  to  have  met  with  such  an  accident 
the  agent  who  first  interviewed  him  questioned 
him  regarding  it,  and  especially  asked  whether  the 
fault  was  his  own  and  whether  he  had  received 
damages;  but  not  appreciating  the  possible  statis- 
tical value  of  his  statements  on  these  points,  the 
agent  made  no  record  of  them. 

Almost  the  only  test,  therefore,  which  we  have 
of  the  truth  of  the  claims  made  by  the  remainder 
(27  out  of  55)  that  they  were  crippled  by  work- 
accidents,  is  that  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  their 
general  statements  upon  other  matters.  These 

75 


HOMELESS   MEN 

were  found  to  be  true  in  19  instances,  false  in  four, 
and  they  could  not  be  verified  in  the  remaining 
four.  Undoubtedly,  certain  of  the  19  men  whose 
statements  in  regard  to  recent  matters  were  true, 
told  the  truth  about  their  injuries,  but  it  will  not 
do  to  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  all  of  them  did 
so  and  that  19  more  should,  therefore,  be  added  to 
our  total  of  six  proved  industrial  accident  cases; 
for  this  test,  as  explained  in  an  earlier  chapter,  is 
a  most  uncertain  one,  and  it  may  be  shown  to  be 
practically  worthless  in  this  case  because  we  found 
upon  investigation  that  three  of  these  19  men  had 
never  had  any  work  records  at  all,  but  had  been 
tramps  and  beggars  from  boyhood.  A  more 
thorough  investigation  in  other  cases  might  have 
proved  a  similar  lack. 

However,  in  addition  to  the  six  men  whose 
accident  stories  were  found  to  be  true,  there  were 
20  cases  out  of  the  55  in  which  investigation  proved 
that  the  men  had  been  bona  fide  workmen  of  such 
good  character  and  habits  (and  our  own  further 
acquaintance  with  them  tended  to  corroborate 
their  apparent  truthfulness  in  all  matters),  that 
they  should  perhaps  be  given  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt  about  their  stories  of  injuries  and  counted 
with  the  six.*  If  these  probable  but  not  proved 
cases  are  counted  with  the  verified  ones,  it  makes 
a  total  of  26  cases  out  of  the  thousand  homeless 
men,  or  2.6  per  cent,  who  had  been  injured  while 

*  For  occupations  before  and  after  injuries  of  55  men  who  claimed 
ndustrial  accidents,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  1 1,  p.  286. 

76 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

at  work.  If  the  six  proved  cases  only  are  taken  it 
appears  that  but  .6  per  cent  out  of  the  thousand 
met  with  such  accidents.  Of  the  254  crippled 
and  maimed  in  the  thousand,  the  percentage  of 
actual  industrial  accidents  must  lie  between  2.3 
per  cent  and  10.3  per  cent.* 

If  a  careful  study  of  the  cases  of  a  number  of 
men  who  have  met  with  industrial  accidents  were 
to  be  made,  it  would  probably  show  that  a  large 
proportion  of  such  accidents  are  occurring  to 
married  men  whose  families  succeed  in  caring  for 
them  during  the  period  of  their  disabilities,  thus 
preventing  them  from  drifting  into  the  vagrant 
class.  When  in  such  cases  standards  of  living  are 
lowered,  and  the  earnings  of  children  taken  out  of 
school  must  be  resorted  to,  the  indirect  results 
may  be  revealed  only  in  later  years  in  the  under- 
mined vitality  of  these  children.  Yet  this  indirect 
result  may  be  far  more  serious  than  the  direct  one. 
And  such  a  study  would  probably  also  show  that 
so  long  as  they  are  able  in  any  way  to  support 
themselves,  unmarried  workingmen  who  meet 
with  industrial  accidents  will  continue  to  be  just 
what  they  were  before  they  suffered  such  injuries — 
workers,  not  idlers  or  parasites;  for,  as  illustrated 
by  the  study  of  individual  cases  in  the  previous 


*  The  group  of  crippled  and  maimed  homeless  men  considered  in 
this  study  is  numerically  small,  but  proportionally  it  is  large,  since  it 
is  almost  certain  that  there  is  a  larger  percentage  of  cripples  and 
defective  of  all  sorts  among  this  particular  thousand  cases  than  would 
be  found  in  any  thousand,  chosen  at  random  from  among  homeless 
men  in  general,  not  all  of  whom  had  asked  charity. 

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78 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

chapter,  the  mere  fact  that  he  is  temporarily  or 
even  permanently  crippled  does  not  usually  lead  a 
man  to  change  his  whole  mode  of  life  and  become  a 
tramp  and  a  beggar.*  Even  when  his  handicap 
is  very  great  he  will  generally  struggle  hard  to 
maintain  his  independence  and  will  not  become  a 
vagrant,  unless  the  seeds  of  degeneracy  have 
merely  been  lying  dormant  within  him  awaiting 
some  favorable  opportunity  for  growth, — or  unless 
ignorance,  incompetency,  ill-health,  or  some  other 
additional  handicap  exists,  which,  together  with 
his  injury,  makes  self-support  practically  unattain- 
able.f 

The  stories  of  two  men,  with  whom  we  were 
dealing  at  the  same  time,  will  further  illustrate  this. 
One  was  the  man  referred  to  on  page  74,  who 
claimed  to  have  been  hurt  while  in  the  employ  of 
a  certain  railroad  company  but  who  was,  in  fact, 
run  over  and  injured  while  intoxicated  and  asleep 
on  the  tracks.  This  man,  who  was  thirty-five 

*  An  inquiry  into  the  drink,  tramping,  and  begging  habits,  before 
and  after  injury,  of  the  men  who  claimed  industrial  accidents,  re- 
sulted in  the  following  summary: 

Sixteen  men  drank  to  excess  after  becoming  crippled;  of  these, 
7  had  drunk  to  excess  before;  5  had  not,  and  the  previous  habits  of  4 
in  this  regard  are  not  known. 

Fifteen  men  were  tramps  after  being  crippled;  of  these,  7  had  been 
tramps  before;  3  had  not,  and  the  previous  habits  of  5  in  this  re- 
gard are  not  known. 

Twenty-three  men  begged  after  becoming  crippled;  of  these,  3  had 
been  beggars  before;  5  had  not,  and  the  previous  habits  of  15  in 
this  regard  are  not  known. 

t  For  general  and  detailed  data  concerning  amount  of  self-support 
before  and  after  injury  of  the  5  5  men  who  claimed  industrial  accidents, 
and  of  the  32  permanently  crippled,  see  Table  V  and  Appendix  A, 
Tables  11-13,  PP-  286-288 

79 


HOMELESS    MEN 

years  of  age  and  unmarried,  had  a  record  of  four- 
teen years'  employment  in  one  place  as  an  iron 
worker.  He  left  this  position  one  day  of  his  own 
accord,  and  started  West;  the  accident  occurred 
soon  after.  We  learned  from  his  employers  that 
the  man  had  been  in  the  habit  of  drinking  occa- 
sionally, but  never  enough  to  interfere  with  his 
work.  His  record  upon  the  whole  was  so  favorable, 
that,  ignoring  his  initial  falsehood  in  regard  to  his 
injuries,  we  offered  to  help  him  secure  an  artificial 
leg;  to  supply  his  actual  needs  until  he  should 
become  familiar  with  its  use;  and  to  assist  him  to 
find  work  when  he  should  be  able  to  take  it  again. 
All  this  was  to  be  conditioned  upon  his  stopping 
the  practice  of  begging  which  he  had  taken  up  in 
the  few  weeks  since  his  dismissal  from  the  hospital. 
He  promised  to  do  this  and  further  co-operated  by 
giving  us  the  names  of  friends  who  might  be 
willing  to  contribute  toward  the  purchase  of  the 
artificial  leg. 

Letters  had  been  written,  and  other  steps  taken 
in  his  behalf,  when  one  day,  about  a  week  later, 
he  came  to  the  office  and  announced  that  he  had 
changed  his  mind  about  the  matter  of  begging 
and  did  not  think  it  right,  under  the  circumstances, 
to  let  us  continue  to  make  efforts  to  raise  the 
money  to  buy  him  a  leg,  or  to  assist  him  in  any 
way.  There  was  some  odd  streak  of  honesty  in 
this  man  which  made  him  ashamed  to  deceive  us, 
who  had  voluntarily  offered  to  befriend  him,  even 
though  at  the  same  time  he  frankly  confessed  his 

80 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

intention  to  deceive  the  general  public  and  live 
thereafter  by  begging. 

"  I  could  get  a  leg  for  myself  if  I  wanted  one,"  he 
said.  "  I  have  this  peg  leg,  and  I  could  get  work 
enough  any  time,  without  any  help  from  you  folks, 
to  earn  one  of  the  other  sort,  if  I  wanted  to,  but 
I  don't.  You've  treated  me  white,  so  1  thought  it 
wouldn't  be  honest  not  to  tell  you,  but  there's  no 
use  pretending  that  I'm  going  to  give  up  drinking, 
the  way  I  promised  you,  and  go  back  to  work,  for 
I'm  not.  I  like  to  travel  and  I  can  get  a  living 
without  working.  I  know  you  don't  like  the  way 
I'll  get  it,  but  I've  made  up  my  mind;  I'm  done 
with  work.  There's  no  use  of  your  trying  to  argue 
with  me,  for  I  know  what  I'm  going  to  do,  but  you 
treated  me  white  so  I  thought  I  ought  to  let  you 
know," — and  he  stumped  out  of  the  office  without 
giving  me  a  moment's  opportunity  to  "argue." 

He  was  apparently  as  good  as  his  word,  for 
within  a  week  he  was  reported  to  the  office  as 
begging.  We  gave  his  name  and  description  to 
the  police,  but  they  did  not  find  him,  and  as  he  was 
not  reported  again  it  is  probable  that  he  left  the 
city,  to  continue  his  begging  elsewhere,  telling  a 
pathetic  story  of  an  industrial  accident  and  of  its 
blighting  influence  upon  his  career. 

The  other  man,  aged  forty-nine  and  also  single, 
had  learned  the  trade  of  a  cooper  in  his  youth,  but 
the  loss  of  his  right  thumb,  which  occurred  while 
he  was  at  work,  prevented  his  further  use  of 
cooper's  tools,  and  he  abandoned  the  trade  and 
6  81 


HOMELESS    MEN 

became  a  sailor  and  a  pilot  on  the  lakes.  He  had 
spent  his  summers  upon  the  vessels  and  had  made 
Chicago  his  winter  headquarters  for  twenty-five 
consecutive  years,  when  a  second  industrial  acci- 
dent resulted  in  the  loss  of  his  right  leg.  Almost 
as  soon  as  he  was  discharged  from  the  hospital, 
this  hitherto  self-supporting  man  began  to  sell 
pencils  and  to  beg  from  door  to  door  in  Chicago, 
asking  for  money  with  which  to  purchase  an  arti- 
ficial leg.  As  has  been  stated  in  another  chapter, 
this  is  a  favorite  story  with  crippled  professional 
beggars,  and  from  this  man's  general  appearance,  as 
well  as  from  the  fact  that  he  took  to  begging  so 
promptly  after  he  left  the  hospital,  it  looked  as 
though  he  had  entered  the  class  of  parasites  by 
choice,  without  any  effort  toward  independence. 
This  seemed  the  more  likely  as  he  did  not  at  once 
come  to  the  office  when  referred  to  it  by  a  citizen. 
But  he  proved  to  be  one  of  the  hundreds  of 
men  whom  it  would  have  been  most  unfair  to 
judge  by  appearances  without  a  hearing  and  an 
investigation  of  his  story.  When  seen  and  ques- 
tioned he  frankly  admitted  the  begging,  but  said 
that  he  had  taken  to  it  only  as  a  last  resort,  after 
he  had  found  that  no  one  was  willing  to  employ 
him  while  he  was  using  crutches.  He  said  that 
the  thought  of  being  continuously  dependent,  and 
of  perhaps  ending  his  days  in  the  poorhouse,  was 
so  unbearable  to  him,  that  he  had  determined  to 
secure  an  artificial  leg  for  himself,  somehow  and 
at  once,  even  at  the  temporary  loss  of  his  self- 

82 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

respect  while  begging  from  door  to  door.  We 
looked  up  this  man's  record  and  found  it  excellent, 
and  within  a  few  days — before  we  had  taken  steps 
to  secure  a  leg  for  him — had  the  good  fortune  to 
find  easy  work  for  him.  One  of  his  employers 
immediately  took  a  great  interest  in  the  man,  and 
in  addition  to  making  a  small  initial  payment  him- 
self towards  the  purchase  of  a  leg,  became  respon- 
sible to  the  firm  manufacturing  it  for  the  payment 
of  the  remainder  of  its  cost.  This  enabled  the 
cripple  to  secure  the  leg  at  once,  and  to  pay  for  it 
himself,  a  little  at  a  time,  out  of  his  earnings.  In 
this  way  a  habit  of  saving  was  for  the  first  time 
established  in  the  man,  and  after  the  leg  was  fully 
paid  for  he  started  an  account  in  a  savings  bank, 
and  has  added  something  to  it  every  month  during 
the  past  six  years.* 

While  one  must  admit  that  many  cripples  are 
not  as  successful  as  this  one,  either  in  finding 
employment  or  in  re-establishing  their  industrial 
independence,  one  thing  seems  to  be  clear  from 
the  story  of  this  man's  life:  if,  handicapped  by  the 
loss  of  a  limb,  he  was  able  to  meet  all  his  expenses 
and  still  save  several  hundred  dollars  in  a  few 
years'  time  out  of  his  very  small  salary  as  a  watch- 
man, he  might  have  saved  a  much  larger  amount 


*  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  this  man,  who  now  has  several 
hundred  dollars  in  the  bank,  has  himself  become  a  small  contributor 
to  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  and  also  that  on  one  occasion  he  helped  a 
fellow-cripple  to  secure  an  artificial  leg  by  going  with  him  to  the  shop 
where  his  own  had  been  purchased,  and  guaranteeing  the  full  pay- 
ment, just  as  his  employer  had  done  for  him. 

83 


HOMELESS    MEN 

against  the  day  of  possible  disability,  if  he  had 
chosen  to  do  so  during  the  twenty-five  or  more 
years  in  which  he  had  earned  a  much  larger  income. 

Eight  of  the  26  men*  who  had  probably  suffered 
industrial  accidents,  admitted  that  these  had  been 
caused  by  their  own  carelessness  or  disobedience 
of  orders,  and  that  they  had  no  right  under  the 
law  to  claim  damages.  Ten  men  admitted  having 
received  damages  for  their  injuries, — six  for 
permanent,  and  four  for  temporary  injuries.  Two 
men  complained  that  lawyers  had  received  the 
larger  share  of  the  money  paid  to  them;  and  the 
damages  received  from  his  employers  by  a  third 
man  were  absurdly  small  considering  the  nature  of 
his  injuries.  Two  men  who  told  of  promises  of 
life  positions,  both  admitted  that  they  had  by 
their  own  acts  forfeited  any  claims  to  them. 
Seventeen  of  the  26  men  who  in  all  probability  had 
actually  suffered  industrial  accidents,  had  received 
permanent  injuries.  Every  one  of  these  men 
whose  work  history  we  knew  had  been  fully  self- 
supporting  prior  to  his  accident,  and  all  but  three 
of  the  17  were  still,  after  the  accidents,  in  the  main 
self-supporting. 

A  brief  digest,  giving  some  interesting  facts  in 
regard  to  these  17  permanently  injured  men,  will 
be  found  in  the  Appendix. f  A  German  baker  had 
accepted  $100  in  settlement  from  the  company 
employing  him  at  the  time  of  his  accident,  because 
there  was  some  question  as  to  whose  fault  it  was 

*  See  page  76.  f  See  Appendix  A,  Table  14,  p.  289. 

84 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

that  both  his  hands  were  caught  in  a  dough  roller 
and  so  badly  crushed  that  the  bones  of  the  right 
hand  had  to  be  removed.  Another  man,  a  German 
of  Russian  parentage,  who  was  unfamiliar  with 
English  and  rather  ignorant,  said  that  after  his 
accident  he  had  signed,  without  understanding  its 
contents,  a  paper  releasing  the  mining  company 
from  responsibility.  His  statement  could  not  be 
verified.  This  man  seemed  so  anxious  to  be  self- 
supporting  that  special  efforts  were  made  to  find 
employment  for  him  as  watchman  or  time-keeper. 
He  was  sent  in  all  to  35  different  firms  of  contract- 
ors, not  one  of  whom  could  give  him  immediate 
employment;  when  one  firm,  later,  sent  word  that 
they  had  a  $12  a  week  position  for  him,  the  man 
had  become  discouraged  by  his  many  failures  to 
secure  work,  had  given  up  the  attempt,  and  dis- 
appeared. Every  effort  was  made  to  find  him,  but 
without  success.  This  case  is  cited  to  show  how 
extremely  difficult  it  is  for  a  man  like  this  one 
who  had  an  additional  handicap  in  his  ignorance 
of  English,  to  secure  work  for  himself  after  so 
disabling  an  accident  as  the  loss  of  an  arm.  It  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  such  men  take  to 
begging;  they  must  do  so  in  order  to  maintain  life 
outside  of  almshouses,  and  if  non-resident  they 
are  not  even  admitted  to  these.  It  should,  how- 
ever, be  noted  that  of  the  three  men  in  this  list  of 
the  permanently  injured,  known  to  be  chronically 
dependent,  two  were  so  as  much  because  of  excessive 
drinking  as  because  of  their  physical  handicaps. 

85 


HOMELESS   MEN 

It  should  be  recognized  that  additional  handi- 
caps like  ignorance,  drink,  or  other  causes  of 
dependence  must  be  counted  upon  as  likely  to 
force  into  the  vagrant  class  a  certain  percentage 
of  all  men  with  small  or  irregular  incomes  who 
meet  with  accidents;  and  students  of  these  prob- 
lems must  discover  the  means  of  withdrawing 
from  the  road,  not  only  the  men  who  deliberately 
choose  vagrancy,  but  also  those  who  slip  down  into 
it  because  of  their  moral  weaknesses,  or  because 
of  additional  mental  or  physical  handicaps.  For 
these  men,  as  well  as  for  the  immediate  help  of  all 
cripples,  it  would  be  well  if,  in  every  community, 
there  were  some  such  agency  as  the  Bureau  for 
the  Handicapped  in  New  York  City,  which  is 
maintained  by  the  Charity  Organization  Society 
and  which  is  doing  a  valuable  work  by  securing 
for  handicapped  men  the  right  sort  of  employment 
before  they  have  been  forced,  from  the  lack  of  it, 
into  chronic  dependence  and  vagrancy. 

Such  methods  of  alleviating  unnecessary  suffer- 
ing and  of  assisting  men  to  become  independent 
seem  to  be  the  most  practical  ones  which  can  be 
put  into  immediate  effect  in  American  cities, 
pending  the  time  when  better  laws  of  various  sorts 
shall  reduce  the  total  number  of  our  crippled  and 
maimed,  and  shall  provide  other  than  philanthropic 
resources  for  the  care  of  those  who  are  likely  still  to 
be  crippled  by  unpreventable  accidents.  For,  how- 
ever much  may  have  been  said  in  this  and  the 
preceding  chapter  which  would  tend  to  prove 

86 


INDUSTRIAL   ACCIDENTS 

that  even  when  a  man  is  handicapped  his  per- 
sonality and  the  strength  of  his  desire  for  inde- 
pendence will  have  much  to  do  with  his  ultimate 
attainment  of  it,  it  is  certain  that  men  who  are 
permanently  crippled  or  maimed  to  any  serious 
extent  are  at  a  terrible  disadvantage  in  the  matter 
of  finding  employment;  and  that  many  undergo 
great  suffering,  both  mental  and  physical,  before 
they  secure  it,  or  before,  failing  to  secure  it,  they 
sink  into  chronic  dependence. 

It  is  not  within  the  province  of  this  study  to 
discuss  even  briefly  the  various  methods  for  safe- 
guarding machinery  or  for  otherwise  lessening  the 
risks  of  accidents  in  various  trades  and  occupations, 
which  have  been  suggested  or  put  into  practice 
in  parts  of  this  country  and  in  Europe;  nor  can 
the  several  plans  for  indemnity  in  cases  of  accident, 
nor  of  industrial  insurance  and  the  pensioning  of 
injured  men,  be  here  considered.  The  aim  in  this 
chapter  has  been  only  to  assist  in  throwing  a  clearer 
light  upon  the  relation  between  industrial  accidents 
and  vagrancy,  and  to  show  how  after  all  the  personal 
equation  enters  into  and  must  be  considered  in  this 
as  in  every  other  phase  of  the  problem  of  the 
vagrant. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  INSANE,  FEEBLE-MINDED,  AND 
EPILEPTIC 

NO  one  who  comes  in  touch  with  homeless 
men  as  a  class  can  long  remain  unac- 
quainted with  the  fact  that  a  considerable 
number  of  them  are  mentally  defective  or  diseased. 
In  this  particular  group  of  a  thousand  men,  81 
were  found  to  be  temporarily  or  permanently 
dependent  on  account  of  mental  unfitness  for  work. 
In  52  cases  the  men  were,  or  had  recently  been, 
insane;  in  19,  feeble-minded;  and  in  18,  epileptic. 
Four  of  these  were  both  epileptic  and  insane,  and 
one  was  epileptic  and  feeble-minded.*  All  cases 
about  which  there  might  be  a  question  are  ex- 
cluded, and  only  those  of  men  whose  mental 
diseases  or  defects  were  either  self-evident  or  were 
definitely  ascertained  are  included. f  The  recog- 
nized number  of  the  insane  would  be  materially 
increased  if  there  were  added  the  border-line  cases, 

*To  avoid  duplication  they  have  been  counted  only  with  the 
epileptic. 

t  Insanity  is  differently  defined  in  different  states  and  only  those 
men  are  listed  as  insane  who  fall  under  the  legal  interpretation  of 
insanity  in  the  state  of  Illinois:  "Unsoundness  of  mind  by  means  of 
which  a  person  is  incapable  of  managing  or  caring  for  his  own  estate, 
or  is  dangerous  to  himself  or  others  if  permitted  to  go  at  large,  or  is 
in  such  a  condition  of  mind  or  body  as  to  be  a  fit  subject  for  cure  and 
treatment  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane." 

88 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

such  as  those  of  certain  of  the  tramps  in  whom 
the  overwhelming  desire  to  wander  seemed  in 
itself  little  less  than  a  form  of  mania,  and  also  some 
of  the  well-born  and  highly  educated  degenerates 
whose  extreme  tendencies  to  vice  and  crime  seemed 
to  be  due  to  lack  of  that  mental  balance  which 
the  ordinary  individual  possesses.*  To  the  num- 
ber of  the  feeble-minded  might  also  be  added  the 
cases  of  certain  men  who,  while  not  actually 
imbecile,  were  yet  so  dull,  ignorant,  and  incapable 
as  to  be  greatly  handicapped  by  their  mental 
deficiencies.! 

THE  INSANE 

One  of  the  first  questions  of  interest  about 
insane  homeless  men  is  whether  they  are  homeless 
and  vagrant  because  of  their  insanity,  or  insane 
because  of  their  vagrancy.  The  mode  of  life  of 
the  true  tramp  or  vagrant,  with  its  excitements, 
excesses,  and  irregularities,  is  such  that  it  might 
reasonably  be  expected  to  cause  insanity  in  a 
certain  percentage  of  this  type  of  cases,  and  that  it 
actually  does  so  can  very  readily  be  proved  by 
study  of  the  histories  of  many  of  the  inmates  of 
our  state  and  county  insane  asylums.  Even  in 
the  small  group  of  52  insane  found  in  the  thousand 

*  It  is  probable,  too,  that  many  interviews  were  taken  with  men 
really  insane,  whose  insanity  was  not  recognized  by  the  persons  who 
interviewed  them  at  the  office. 

f  Facts  with  regard  to  the  legal  residence  of  the  men  may  be  found 
in  Appendix  A,  Table  15,  p.  290.  For  additional  handicaps  of  48  of 
the  men,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  16,  p.  291. 


HOMELESS    MEN 


TABLE  VI.— GENERAL  DATA  CONCERNING  89  INSANE, 
FEEBLE-MINDED,  AND  EPILEPTIC  MEN 


A.  NATIVITY 

American 53* 

English 4 

German 1 1 

Irish 3 

Scandinavian 4 

Canadian 2 

Other 5 

Not  known 7 


B.  AMOUNT  OF  SELF-SUPPORT 

Entirely 13 

Partly 19 

Not  at  all 50 

Not  known 7 

Total .  .  .89 


Total 89 

*  Of  the  American  born 
men,  the  parents  of  45  were 
American;  3,  German;  3, 
Scandinavian;  I,  other  na- 
tionality; i,  not  known.  Total 


C.  CONFIRMED  HABITS  OF  65  OF 
THESE  MEN 

Drink 21 

Drugs 4 

Wandering 24 

Licentiousness.  .  .    16 


D.  LENGTH  OF  TIME  MEN  WERE  KNOWN  TO  THE  OFFICE 


Time 

Insane 

Feeble-minded 

Epileptic 

i  day 

3 

3 

3 

i  day  to  i  week  

3 

3 

4 

i  week  to  i  month  

IO 

4 

4 

i  month  to  6  months  

1  1 

4 

5 

6  months  to  i  year  

6 

I 

i  year  to  2  years  

7 

, 

0 

2  years  to  5  years  

9 

3 

5  years  to  10  years  

3 

0 

0 

Total                            .    . 

fj 

10 

18 

under  consideration,  there  were  four  men  of  the 
confirmed  vagrant  type  who  were  normal  mentally 
when  they  first  applied  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities, 
but  who  became  insane  later  during  our  acquaint- 
ance with  them. 

90 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

Among  homeless  men  who  are  not  dissolute  not 
a  few  go  insane  from  the  effects  of  worry  and 
under-nourishment.  Such  cases  are  more  numer- 
ous during  periods  of  depression  like  that  of  1907 
-8,  but  even  in  normal  times  it  is  not  unusual 
for  a  man  who  is  old  or  otherwise  industrially 
handicapped  to  suffer  a  mental  breakdown  from 
these  causes.  In  five  out  of  the  52  instances 
listed  in  this  chapter,  physicians  diagnosed  worry 
and  under-nourishment  as  the  chief  causes  of  in- 
sanity, and  in  several  other  cases  they  were  men- 
tioned as  contributory  causes. 

There  are  other  ways  in  which  the  facts  of 
homelessness  or  vagrancy  account  for  insanity 
among  homeless  men,  but  judging  from  the  histo- 
ries of  these  52,  whose  cases  are  probably  typical, 
insanity  acts  as  a  cause  of  vagrancy  more  often 
than  vagrancy  as  a  cause  of  insanity.  More  men 
in  this  group  drifted  onto  the  road  after  they  had 
gone  insane  than  were  vagrant  before  becoming 
so.  We  lack  definite  information  on  this  point  in 
four  cases,  but,  of  the  remainder,  12  men  only  had 
been  residents  of  the  cheap  lodging  houses  pre- 
vious to  going  insane,  while  36  had  no  records  of 
vagrancy,  dependence,  or  homelessness,  until  after 
the  loss  of  reason. 

Just  how  these  52  insane  men  happened  to  be  in 
the  cheap  lodging  houses,  instead  of  in  hospitals 
or  asylums,*  is  an  interesting  question.  Almost 

*  For  data  showing  the  kinds  of  institutions  in  which  the  insane 
men  had  been  before  applying  for  relief,  see  footnote  on  page  97. 

9' 


HOMELESS   MEN 

TABLE  VII.— GENERAL  DATA  CONCERNING  52  INSANE 

MEN 

B.  OCCUPATIONS     BEFORE     BE- 
A.  AGES,  BY  GROUPS  COMING  INSANE 

20  to  29 8       Skilled 8 

30  to  39 7       Partly  skilled 6 

40  to  49 20       Unskilled 10 

50  to  59 9       In  professions 1 1 

60  to  69 4       In  business i 

70  to  79 i       Clerical   workers   and    sales- 

80  to  82 2              men 10 

Not  known i       Not  known 6 

Total 52              Total 52 


C.  DURATION  OF  MENTAL  DISORDER 

Insanity  recent 24 

Insanity  chronic 17 

Duration  of  insanity  not  known 5 

Cured 4 

Temporarily  cured  but  suffering  from 

recurrent  manias 2 

Total 52 


one-fourth  of  them  had  wandered  away  from 
relatives  and  friends.  We  found  that  this  had 
occurred  in  most  instances  after  their  insanity  had 
been  recognized,  but  before  the  necessary  steps 
had  been  taken  to  insure  their  care  in  hospitals. 
In  a  few  cases,  however,  men  came  to  us  insane 
who,  so  far  as  their  relatives  knew,  had  left  their 
homes  in  normal  mental  condition.  It  is  probable, 
however,  that  the  fact  of  their  leaving  home  as 
they  did  was  in  itself  the  first  manifestation  of  the 
insanity  which  was  very  marked  at  the  time  they 
came  to  our  attention.  In  a  number  of  other  cases 
men  had  been  sane  when  they  left  their  homes, 

92 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

had  come  to  Chicago  for  employment,  and  had 
been  employed  and  fully  self-supporting  up  to 
the  time  that  "temper"  or  "queerness"  incapaci- 
tated them  for  further  work.  One  man  showed  no 
si^n  of  mental  trouble  but  admitted  that  he  had 
recently  lost  two  places  because  of  an  ungovern- 
able temper.  We  sent  him  to  another  position, 
where  the  same  thing  happened  again.  We  then 
suspected  that  something  more  serious  than  was 
apparent  lay  behind  his  difficulty  in  holding 
employment,  but  did  not  at  once  send  him  to  a 
physician  for  examination.  Within  a  fortnight, 
during  which  under-nourishment  and  worry  had 
undoubtedly  aggravated  his  trouble,  he  returned, 
this  time  so  "hounded  by  enemies,"  so  violent  in 
language  and  manner,  that  there  was  no  further 
question  as  to  his  condition. 

Another  man  who  voluntarily  gave  up  two  good 
positions  in  succession  confided  to  us  that  he  did 
so  because  he  did  not  like  to  work  "near  people." 
It  was  our  first  hint  of  the  mental  breakdown 
which  was  complete  a  week  later,  when  he  begged 
us  to  have  him  placed  in  solitary  confinement  for 
a  year  because  of  an  imaginary  offense  against 
one  of  the  workers  in  the  office.  In  both  these 
cases,  and  in  all  others  like  them,  we  consulted  , 
employers  in  regard  to  the  men,  but  in  only  one 
instance  had  an  employer  suspected  that  insanity 
was  the  real  cause  of  the  man's  difficulty  with 
foreman  or  fellow  employes. 

The  fact  that  they  had  wandered  away  from 
93 


HOMELESS    MEN 

friends  who  might  have  cared  for  them,  or  that 
they  had  lost  positions  because  of  insanity  and 
had  been  forced  by  necessity  into  dependence,  ac- 
counted for  the  presence  in  the  lodging  house 
district  of  more  than  one-half  of  the  36  men  who 
had  become  vagrants  after  the  loss  of  reason.  To 
account  for  the  remainder  required  almost  as  many 
reasons  as  men.  One  man,  a  really  dangerous 
maniac,  had  escaped  from  a  private  hospital  for 
the  insane  in  Wisconsin,  to  which  we  returned 
him  as  soon  as  this  fact  was  ascertained  and 
attendants  could  be  sent  for  him.  Three  men 
had  become  deranged  from  blows  on  the  head; 
one  of  these  was  a  middle-aged  Californian  who,  on 
his  way  to  visit  relatives  in  the  East,  had  decided 
to  stop  over  for  a  single  day  in  Chicago.  On  his 
way  from  the  railroad  station  to  a  hotel  he  was 
sandbagged  and  robbed  of  $150  and  his  hand 
baggage.  The  blow  made  him  insane  and  his  loss 
made  him  temporarily  dependent.  It  was  several 
weeks  before  he  was  dismissed  from  the  hospital 
to  which  he  was  committed  and  was  again  able 
to  resume  his  interrupted  journey. 

Several  men  were  alcoholics  but  not  dependents 
until  after  their  loss  of  reason.  It  may  be  of 
interest  to  note  at  this  point  that  23  of  the  52 
insane  were  men  of  refinement,  from  good  homes; 
eight  were  college  men  and  10  or  more  were  high 
school  graduates.  In  n  of  these  cases  drink, 
drugs,  and  immorality  are  known  to  have  caused 
insanity,  and  they  may  have  been  indirect  causes 

94 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

in  other  cases.     In  only  two  cases  out  of  the  52 
do  we  know  that  insanity  was  inherited. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  causes  of  their 
disorder,  and  by  whatever  chances  or  mishaps  they 
may  have  drifted  or  been  forced  into  the  life  of  the 
road  and  the  cheap  lodging  houses,  unquestionably 
the  sufferings  of  the  insane,  as  they  wander  about 
uncared  for,  are  very  great.  A  few  of  the  harmless 
chronic  insane  are  able  to  do  a  small  amount  of 
work,  if  they  can  find  it,  which  often  is  not  possible. 
But  for  most  of  the  mentally  diseased  self-support 
is  quite  impossible.*  Some  did  not  know  enough 
to  secure  what  they  needed  by  begging,  and  in  a 
number  of  cases  the  delusions  of  the  men  kept  them 
from  accepting  food  when  it  was  offered.  The 
look  of  actual  starvation  was  more  often  to  be 
seen  in  the  faces  of  the  insane  who  came  to  the 
office  than  among  any  other  class  of  applicants. 
I  especially  recall  one  lad  who  had  wandered  about 
the  country  for  three  months — frequently  traveling 
on  tickets  furnished  by  county  poor  relief  agents 
who  were  anxious  to  avoid  the  expense  of  his  care— 
until  he  had  covered  a  thousand  miles  of  distance 
from  his  home  and  until  the  very  slight  unsound- 
ness  of  mind  with  which  he  had  started  out  had 
developed  into  an  acute  and  dangerous  form  of 
dementia.  This  lad,  when  he  came  to  us,  ad- 
mitted that  he  had  eaten  nothing  for  days,  but 
we  could  not  persuade  him  to  taste  food  lest 

*  For  list  of  occupations  of  the  insane  men,  see  Appendix  A,  Table 
•  7.  P-  291. 

95 


HOMELESS    MEN 

"enemies"  had  poisoned  it.  Fear  lest  the  same 
enemies  should  discover  where  he  was  and  attack 
him  made  it  very  difficult  to  detain  him  at  the 
office  until  the  arrival  of  the  ambulance  for  which 
we  had  immediately  telephoned.  When  it  arrived 
he  probably  felt  that  he  had  indeed  been  betrayed 
into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  but,  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, we  took  the  only  possible  course. 

Care  reached  the  boy,  as  it  did  several  others 
whom  we  sent  to  hospitals,  too  late  to  be  of  benefit. 
In  the  eight  years  since  his  commitment  he  has 
not  yet  recovered  his  reason. 

Starvation  and  exposure  are  not  the  only  forms 
of  physical  suffering  which  the  insane  undergo 
during  their  wanderings.  More  than  once  men 
applied  to  us  who  had  met  with  painful  and  serious 
accidents  concerning  which  they  could  give  no 
clear  account.  One  man  came  whose  left  arm 
was  hanging  limp  and  useless  at  his  side.  When 
we  took  him  to  a  nearby  hospital  for  examination, 
the  X-ray  showed  that  the  bones  of  the  arm  were 
shattered  and  that  the  arm  itself  was  in  very  bad 
condition,  so  that  immediate  amputation  was  neces- 
sary. But  the  poor  creature,  whose  sufferings  for 
some  time  must  have  been  intense,  could  give  us  no 
hint  of  how  or  when  the  accident  had  occurred.* 

Considering  the  mental  as  well  as  the  physical 
sufferings  which  they  endure,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  idea  that  they  are  being  persecuted  is  a  com- 

*  This  man  had  been  insane  before  his  accident,  so  the  pain  of  the 
broken  arm  was  not  the  original  cause  of  his  mental  condition. 

96 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

mon  delusion  among  the  homeless  and  wandering 
insane,  and  that  the  derangement  which  is  very 
slight  when  they  set  out  upon  their  journey,  grows 
beyond  hope  of  recovery  by  the  time  the  men 
are  finally  admitted  to  hospitals  for  care. 

In  24  out  of  the  52  cases  listed,  the  insanity  of 
the  men  was  recent.*  Among  these  were  some 
whose  cases  were  incurable  from  the  beginning,— 
men  whose  brain  tissues  had  been  affected  by 
locomotor  ataxia,  paralysis,  tuberculosis,  or  other 
diseases.  There  were,  however,  other  cases  in 
which  the  weeks  and  months  of  strain  and  suf- 
fering through  which  the  men  had  passed  before 
they  came  to  our  attention  were  unquestionably 
responsible  for  the  fact  that,  although  their  insanity 
was  recent,  they  failed  to  recover  after  we  had 
placed  them  in  hospitals. 

Seventeen  men  were  chronically  insane  when 
they  applied  to  us.  Of  these,  five  had  been  dis- 
charged from  state  hospitalsf  as  cured,  but  had 
relapsed  into  their  former  mental  condition  under 
the  stress  and  uncertainties  of  existence  in  the 
lodging  houses.  Most  of  the  men  whose  insanity 
was  chronic  were  only  slightly  unbalanced  and 
were  apparently  harmless,  although  at  what  mo- 
ment a  harmlessly  demented  person  whose  condi- 

*  See  Table  VII,  p.  92. 

t  Thirty-six  of  the  insane  men  had  been  inmates  of  institutions,  as 
follows:  insane  asylums,  20;  homes  for  the  incurable,  3;  poorhouses, 
8;'  jails,  2;  workhouse,  i;  reform  school,  i;  and  drink  cure,  i.  (Four 
of  these  men  had  been  in  more  than  one  of  the  institutions  mentioned.) 
Seventeen  of  the  insane  men  had  never  been  inmates  of  institutions, 
and  regarding  3  the  facts  were  not  known. 

7  97 


HOMELESS   MEN 

tion  is  constantly  being  aggravated  by  under-nour- 
ishment  and  worry  may  become  dangerous  is  not 
easy  to  foretell.  Five  men  we  knew  too  super- 
ficially and  for  too  short  a  time  to  be  able  to  judge 
whether  the  insanity  (which  was  in  each  instance 
slight)  was  chronic  or  recent.  Of  the  remaining 
six  cases  of  the  52,  two  were  alcoholics  who  suffered 
from  recurrent  manias,  but  who  were  apparently 
normal  when  they  applied  to  the  Bureau;  and  four 
others  (two  of  whom  also  were  victims  of  drink) 
had  but  recently  been  dismissed  from  hospitals  for 
the  insane  and  had  not  yet  been  able  to  find 
employment  and  reinstate  themselves. 

The  methods  of  treatment  which  were  followed 
in  the  cases  of  the  insane  who  came  to  the  Bureau 
of  Charities  differed  according  to  the  circumstances 
of  each  case.*  Men  who  were  so  irresponsible  that 
they  would  almost  certainly  have  wandered  on  if 
not  confined,  and  also  those  who  were  so  violent 
as  to  be  dangerous  to  themselves  or  others,  were 
usually  sent  at  once  to  the  detention  hospital  on 
commitments  made  out  by  some  member  of  the 
office  force.  If,  however,  the  men  were  but 
slightly  unbalanced,  so  that  with  the  aid  of  com- 
rades in  the  lodging  houses  and  by  personal  in- 
fluence we  were  able  to  hold  them  for  a  few  days, 
we  usually  postponed  such  action  until  we  could 
notify  relatives  of  the  men's  whereabouts  and 
condition  and  urge  them  to  take  the  responsibility 

*  For  information  regarding  length  of  time  men  were  known  to  the 
office,  see  Table  VI,  p.  90. 

98 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

for  their  care.  By  this  delay  we  occasionally  lost 
track  of  a  man  who  should  have  been  detained; 
but  this  happened  far  less  often  than  might  have 
been  expected.  Instances  were  rare,  also,  in  which 
we  could  not  sooner  or  later  learn  something  of  the 
histories  of  the  men  as  well  as  the  names  and 
addresses  of  their  friends.  Only  once  did  we  fail 
to  learn  the  identity  of  a  man,  and  at  the  same 
time  fail  to  hold  him.  In  one  other  case  we  had 
an  old  man  committed  to  the  county  insane 
asylum  two  weeks  after  his  arrival  in  Chicago  and 
were  unable  then  or  later  to  find  any  of  his 
friends.  He  claimed  to  have  come  from  Mar- 
tinique in  the  West  Indies  and  to  have  reached 
Chicago  by  way  of  Mexico,  Texas,  Arkansas  and 
several  other  states,  through  all  of  which  he  had 
wandered  or  been  shipped  by  county  poor  officials, 
during  a  period  of  two  years.  Small  wonder, 
perhaps,  that  his  reason  gave  way  after  such  jour- 
neyings ! 

Three  men,  who  had  been  discharged  from  hos- 
pitals as  cured,  but  who  had  relapsed  after  return- 
ing to  the  lodging  houses,  we  persuaded  to  re-enter 
"state  hospitals  as  voluntary  patients,  thereby 
saving  us  the  necessity  of  having  them  confined 
against  their  will.  Asylum  care  was  not  necessary 
for  some  of  the  men  whose  insanity  though  chronic 
was  slight.  We  kept  in  touch  with  a  number  of 
these  for  several  consecutive  years,  helping  them  at 
intervals  with  employment  or  other  forms  of  aid. 

One  of  these  men  furnished  a  striking  example 
99 


HOMELESS    MEN 

of  the  close  relation  between  the  food  supply  and 
the  mental  condition  of  the  insane.  This  man's 
insanity  was,  as  a  rule,  so  slight  that  he  was  able 
to  support  himself  by  peddling  soap  and  small 
notions.  But  if  for  any  reason  he  failed  to  dispose 
of  enough  goods  to  meet  the  cost  of  his  necessities 
for  a  few  days  or  a  week,  he  would  come  to  us  so 
unbalanced  mentally  that  it  was  with  difficulty 
we  could  talk  with  him.  Invariably,  at  such  times 
even  a  single  "square  meal"  and  the  loan  of  a 
dollar  or  two  (which  he  never  failed  later  to  return) 
would  so  strengthen  him  and  relieve  his  mind  from 
worry  that  in  a  short  time  his  mental  balance 
would  be  restored  and  he  could  continue  his  work. 
The  knowledge  that  he  would  certainly  receive 
help  when  he  needed  it,  probably  accounted  in 
large  part  for  his  ability  to  support  himself  in 
the  intervals  between  his  applications.  These 
applications  are  now  less  frequent  than  at  first 
and  he  has,  in  the  last  year  or  two,  been  able  to 
take  up  some  forms  of  work  which  pay  better  than 
peddling  and  which  prove  that  his  mental  condition 
must,  upon  the  whole,  be  gradually  improving.* 

Alienists  agree  that  the  word  insanity  covers 
diseases  some  of  which  are  incurable,  others  amen- 
able to  improvement  or  cure;  and  that  the  cur- 

*  Our  apparent  success  in  this  case  led  us,  acting  under  the  advice 
of  a  physician,  to  try  the  experiment  of  furnishing  plentiful  food  and 
light  employment  to  several  other  slightly  deranged  men  and  women 
(some  of  whom  were  not  homeless)  in  the  hope  that  by  doing  so  we 
might  prevent  a  further  development  of  their  mental  difficulties, 
and  perhaps  cure  them.  The  results  more  than  justified  the  neces- 
sary expenditure  and  effort. 

100 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

ability  of  many  of  them  depends  upon  th'e'proriiiSt- 
ness  with  which  they  are  recognized  and  treated. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  the  probability  of 
recovery  in  certain  forms  of  the  disease  decreases 
at  the  rate  of  50  per  cent  every  three  months  from 
the  onset.  Although  this  is  open  to  more  than 
one  interpretation,  the  importance,  both  to  the 
men  themselves  and  to  the  country  as  a  whole, 
of  promptly  detaining  and  securing  care  for  the 
homeless  and  wandering  insane  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. That  prompt  care  is  not  more  often 
given  is  probably  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  in- 
cipient insanity  is  not  readily  recognized  as  such 
by  the  laymen  with  whom  the  men  come  in  touch; 
partly  to  the  fact  that  when  recognized  the  average 
citizen  does  not  feel  that  it  is  personally  his  busi- 
ness to  take  the  steps  necessary  to  bring  about  the 
man's  commitment  to  a  hospital;  and  partly,  also, 
to  the  fact  that  in  many  states  the  laws  are  so 
worded  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  secure  the  com- 
mitment of  an  insane  person  to  a  hospital  until  his 
disorder  has  reached  an  acute,  and,  in  many 
instances,  an  incurable  stage.  Probably,  all  three 
of  these  difficulties  could  be  lessened,  if  not  over- 
come, if  in  every  large  city  there  were  special 
psychopathic  clinics  or  dispensaries  of  general 
hospitals  devoted  to  the  care  of  nervous  and  mental 
cases  similar  to  those  which  have  already  been  es- 
tablished in  New  York  City,  Ann  Arbor,  and  Balti- 
more, and  the  one  now  being  established  in  Boston ; 
or  if  there  were  more  psychopathic  hospitals  like 

101 


HOMELESS    MEN 

ftavilion'F  in  \lbariy.  These  are  places  to  which 
persons  who  are  insane,  or  in  bad  nervous  condi- 
tion, can  go  voluntarily,  or  in  which  they  may  be 
placed  by  others,  without  legal  process,  or  any 
more  delay  than  would  be  necessary  to  secure 
the  admission  of  a  patient  to  an  ordinary  hos- 
pital. In  cities  where  clinics  or  hospitals  of  this 
type  have  been  established,  it  has  been  found  that 
a  considerable  percentage  of  the  patients  treated 
in  them  have  been  cured  in  a  few  weeks'  time* 
and  need  never  be  brought  up  for  legal  commitment 
to  the  regular  hospitals  for  the  insane.  If,  after 
being  treated  at  these  clinics  or  hospitals  for  a 
few  weeks,  patients  are  found  to  be  suffering  from 
prolonged  or  incurable  forms  of  insanity,  they  must 
then  be  committed  through  the  required  legal 
procedure  to  the  regular  hospitals  for  the  insane 
where  they  can  receive  the  further  care  they  need.f 

*  It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  some  of  these  rapid  cures  are 
due  in  part  to  the  reception  of  patients  suffering  from  transitory  dis- 
orders which  would  otherwise  have  to  go  without  specialized  treat- 
ment. 

t  Dr.  Adolf  Meyer,  Professor  of  Psychiatry  in  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  Medical  School,  Baltimore,  remarks,  on  this  point:  "The 
majority  of  the  disorders  met  with  in  tramps  are  of  a  rather  insidious 
character,  and  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  lack  of  early  institutional 
care  is  because  there  are  today  no  institutions  adapted  to  habit 
training,  and  disciplinary  drill,  which  would  give  a  sufficiently  rea- 
sonable chance  of  improvement  to  warrant  early  interference  in  such 
cases.  They  demand  different  provisions  from  those  which  the  ordi- 
nary patient  requires,  both  as  to  type  of  treatment  and  as  to  home 
conditions  after  treatment  is  discontinued.  This  class  of  men  will, 
however,  undoubtedly  share  the  benefit  derived  by  the  public  gen- 
erally from  the  recent  provisions  made  for  the  care  of  mental  dis- 
orders in  the  centers  of  the  population, — the  dispensaries  and  special 
wards  mentioned  above.  But  to  make  such  help  of  lasting  value 
much  social  service  will  have  to  be  available  in  connection  with  these 
institutions." 

102 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

Such  a  method  of  first  care  for  the  insane  would 
not  deprive  men  of  their  freedom  and  legal  rights 
any  more  than  placing  a  typhoid  fever  or  pneu- 
monia patient  in  a  hospital  deprives  him  of  those 
rights.  And,  in  the  latter  case,  if  the  man  were  too 
ill  to  know  what  was  best  for  him,  he  would  be 
prevented  from  wandering  the  streets  uncared  for 
in  his  delirium.  Yet  the  opposite  is  practically 
what  is  being  permitted  in  many  cases,  very 
largely  because  we  too  often  fail  to  realize  that 
insanity  is  a  disease,  just  as  much  as  is  pneumonia 
or  typhoid  fever,  and  should  be  treated  as  such. 

THE  FEEBLE-MINDED* 

The  condition  of  the  feeble-minded  man  or  boy 
who  is  found  among  the  homeless  is,  if  possible, 
even  more  pitiable  and  more  hopeless  than  that  of 
most  of  the  insane.  For  even  when  he  falls  into 
the  hands  of  persons  who  would  gladly  try  to 
remove  him  from  the  road  and  provide  care  for 
him,  in  most  instances  little  or  nothing  can  be 
done  in  his  behalf,  for  the  reason  that,  after  he  has 
passed  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  is  not  eligible  for 
admission  to  any  institution  for  the  feeble-minded 
in  the  United  States..  The  only  other  institution 
in  which  he  may  be  placed  for  care  is  the  poorhouse, 
and  since  in  most  states  he  is  only  admitted  and 
not  committed  to  this,  it  is  of  but  little  avail  to 
send  him  there;  he  will  almost  invariably  wander 

*  For  general  data  concerning  this  class,  see  Table  VI,  p.  qo. 
103 


HOMELESS    MEN 

away  and  be  again  upon  the  road  within  a  short 
time. 

Perhaps  no  better  idea  can  be  given  of  the  prob- 
lem which  is  presented  to  the  charity  worker  when 
a  feeble-minded  homeless  man  applies  for  aid, 
than  to  cite  one  or  two  specific  cases  of  this  type. 
A  lad  of  nineteen,  who  thought  he  could  "weed  a 
garden  and  water  grass,"  asked  us  to  send  him  to 
some  place  "where  little  children  are"  and  where 
he  could  milk  cows.  He  was  taken  first  to  a 
restaurant,  where  he  ate  ravenously,  and  then  to 
the  industrial  department  of  a  nearby  lodging 
house,  where  his  ability  to  work  was  tested.  It 
was  found  that  he  did  nothing  except  when 
watched,  and  could  not  do  even  the  simplest  tasks 
without  much  explanation  and  supervision.  From 
a  relative,  whose  address  he  gave  us,  we  learned 
that  the  boy  had  been  for  years  in  the  habit  of 
wandering  away  from  his  home  or  from  any  place 
where  his  family  put  him.  They  had  tried  him  in 
public  and  in  private  schools,  and  also  in  an  indus- 
trial training  school,  but  he  could  learn  nothing 
and  invariably  soon  ran  away.  He  had  somehow 
learned  how  to  dispose  of  things  by  pawning  them 
and  his  family  found  it  very  difficult  to  keep  him 
decently  clothed,  because  he  would  either  sell  or 
pawn  whatever  was  given  to  him.  He  had  once 
sold  a  new  suit  of  clothes  for  15  cents.  His 
family  were  utterly  discouraged  with  the  problem 
of  his  care,  and  said  they  would  welcome  any 
suggestions  or  advice.  The  Bureau  of  Charities 

104 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

appealed  to  a  child-placing  agency  for  a  working 
home  in  the  country  for  him,  but  the  lad  was  too 
old  to  be  accepted  by  this  society  and,  moreover, 
its  agents  felt  certain  that  he  would  run  away  if 
sent  to  a  farm.  A  few  symptoms  made  it  seem 
possible  that  the  boy  was  insane  rather  than 
feeble-minded,  and  he  was  sent  to  the  detention 
hospital  for  examination,  but  was  dismissed  as 
imbecile,  not  insane.  The  effort  was  then  made  to 
send  him  to  the  state  school  for  the  feeble-minded 
at  Lincoln,  Illinois.  He  was  already  three  years 
older  than  the  maximum  age  for  admission  to  that 
institution,  and  so  a  special  appeal  in  his  behalf  was 
made  to  the  superintendent  of  the  institution  and 
to  the  governor  of  the  state.  After  much  work 
and  many  delays  he  was  finally  admitted  to  the 
Lincoln  School.  Four  days  later  we  received  word 
that  he  had  run  away,  and  six  months  later, 
dirty,  ragged  and  half-starved,  he  returned  to 
the  Bureau  of  Charities  and  begged  for  food. 

Here  is  another  case  quite  similar.  A  lad  of 
twenty  told  us,  what  was  probably  true,  that  he 
had  been  taken  sick  while  doing  odd  jobs  at  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  and  that  "someone"  had  put  him  on  a 
train  and  given  him  a  ticket  to  Chicago.  Upon 
his  arrival  he  had  been  taken  by  the  police  from 
the  depot  to  the  county  hospital,  where  he  had 
remained  for  nine  weeks  and  from  which  he  had 
just  been  dismissed.  These  latter  statements  were 
verified.  The  boy  still  looked  very  ill  and  it  was 
necessary  to  give  him  his  entire  support  until  he 

105 


HOMELESS    MEN 

should  be  strong  enough  to  work.  In  less  than  a 
week,  however,  he  had  a  relapse  and  had  to  be 
returned  to  the  hospital  for  several  additional 
weeks  of  treatment.  During  this  interval  his 
history  was  looked  up,  and  after  much  difficulty  we 
learned  that  his  mother  had  died  in  a  poorhouse 
in  Rochester,  New  York,  and  his  father  in  a  poor- 
house  at  Jacksonville,  Illinois.  Also  that  the  boy 
himself  was  too  feeble-minded  to  be  capable  of 
self-support  and  had  been  wandering  about  the 
country  for  some  time. 

With  the  idea  of  saving  the  taxpayers  of  Cook 
County,  upon  whom  he  had  no  claim,  further 
expense  for  this  boy,  and  also  with  the  hope  of 
placing  the  burden  of  his  care  permanently  upon 
the  county  of  which  he  was  a  legal  resident,  we 
made  arrangements  to  send  him  to  Jacksonville, 
Illinois,  to  have  him  enter  the  poorhouse  there, 
but,  before  arrangements  were  completed,  the  boy 
disappeared  and  we  were  never  afterwards  able 
to  find  him.* 

We  were  sometimes  successful  in  securing  care 
and  support  elsewhere  for  feeble-minded  men  and 
boys  who  drifted  into  Chicago;  as,  for  instance,  in 
one  case  where  we  found  that  a  well-to-do  man 
in  Germany  had  sent  his  feeble-minded  son  to 
America  in  order  to  be  rid  of  him.  This  young 
man  had  come  to  the  country  on  a  first-class  ticket 
and  had  thus  escaped  being  sent  back  by  the  immi- 

*  For  legal  residence  of  the  insane,  feeble-minded,  and  epileptic 
men,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  15,  p.  290. 

106 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

gration  officials.  He  had,  however,  been  in  the 
country  less  than  six  months  at  the  time  of  his 
application  to  the  Bureau,  and  as  we  were  able  to 
prove  that  he  was  incapable  of  self-support  and 
had  been  dependent  ever  since  his  arrival,  the 
Immigration  Department  took  up  the  case  upon 
our  request  and  promptly  returned  the  man  to 
Germany. 

In  another  case  of  this  kind,  although  we  proved 
that  a  feeble-minded  son  had  been  sent  to  this 
country  by  a  man  who  was  a  government  official 
of  high  standing  in  Germany,  we  were  unable  to 
have  him  returned  because  he  had  been  here  for 
three  years — a  year  beyond  the  limit  of  time* 
within  which  the  Immigration  Department  at 
that  period  returned  undesirable  citizens.  Money 
could  have  been  raised  to  send  this  man  back  to 
Germany  at  private  expense,  and,  in  fact,  the 
Bureau  expected  to  do  this,  as  the  man  claimed  to 
be  anxious  and  willing  to  return,  but  before  any 
steps  could  be  taken  he  dropped  out  of  sight  and 
we  were  unable  to  trace  him. 

Among  the  feeble-minded  and  epileptic,  as 
among  the  insane,  men  occasionally  came  to  the 
office  who  had  been  seriously  injured  and  could 
not  tell  just  where  or  how  they  received  their 
injuries. f  One  of  these  (who,  by  the  way,  had  just 

*  The  period  has  now  been  extended  to  three  years  during  which 
persons  liable  to  become  a  public  charge  or  found  here  in  violation  of 
the  immigration  laws  may  be  deported. 

t  For  list  of  additional  handicaps  of  48  of  the  men,  see  Appen- 
dix A,  Table  16,  p.  291. 

107 


HOMELESS    MEN 

been  dismissed  from  the  House  of  Correction  to 
which  he  had  been  committed  for  vagrancy),  had 
had  his  right  hand  so  mangled  in  some  sort  of 
accident  that  the  surgeon  who  examined  it  said 
that  its  use  was  permanently  destroyed.  The 
man,  who  was  of  very  low  mentality,  could  give 
few  details  of  the  accident. 

The  feeble-minded  are  not,  as  a  rule,  long-lived. 
The  average  age  of  those  who  applied  to  us  was 
much  lower  than  that  of  the  insane.*  Almost 
without  exception,  too,  these  men  were  ailing, 
if  not  actually  ill  when  they  applied.  One  man, 
who  was  both  deaf  and  so  ill  as  to  be  utterly 
incapable  of  self-support,  even  if  he  had  been 
mentally  normal,  came  to  us  one  evening  and 
begged  to  be  sent  back  to  New  York,  from  which 
place  he  had  wandered  away  with  a  couple  of 
tramps  who  had  assured  him  that  he  could  earn 
five  dollars  a  day  in  Chicago.  Since  this  man 
would  almost  certainly  have  wandered  on  to 
further  suffering  if  not  watched,  we  placed  him  for 
temporary  care  by  courtesy  of  its  superintendent 
in  the  detention  hospital  for  the  insane.  A  tele- 
gram to  the  Charity  Organization  Society  in  New 
York  brought  confirmation  of  his  claim  that 
that  city  was  his  home,  and  he  was  very  promptly 
returned. 

Of  cases  similar  to  this  in  which  feeble-minded 
men  were  returned  to  their  relatives  or  legal 
residences,  there  were  six  in  this  group.  Of  four 

*The  ages  of  the  insane  men  are  given  in  Table  VII,  p.  92. 
.08 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

men  we  lost  track  almost  immediately,  and  four 
others  wandered  away  before  we  were  able  to 
accomplish  much  in  their  behalf.  For  three  we 
were  more  or  less  successful  in  finding  employment 
and  in  keeping  them  at  work.  One  we  placed  in 
the  local  poorhouse.* 

The  most  that  can  be  said,  however,  in  regard 
to  the  treatment  of  any  of  these  men,  is  that  the 
wretchedness  of  some  was  temporarily  alleviated 
and  that  Chicago  itself  was  relieved  of  the  burden 
of  the  support  of  a  few  others, — very  negative 
forms  of  help  which  cannot  in  any  sense  be  called 
successful,  since  they  did  not,  and  from  the  nature 
of  things  could  not,  place  the  men  themselves  in 
positions  of  self-support  or  even  assure  their 
permanent  removal  from  the  road. 

THE  EPILEPTICt 

Of  the  1 8  epileptics  in  this  group  of  the  mentally 
diseased  and  defective  there  is  not  much  to  add 
to  what  has  already  been  written  about  the  insane 
and  the  feeble-minded. J 

It  always  seemed  as  if  we  should  have  been  able 
to  do  more  for  the  epileptics  who  applied  to  the 
Bureau  of  Charities  for  help  than  we  actually 

*  For  length  of  time  the  feeble-minded  men  were  known  to  the 
office,  see  Table  VI,  p.  90. 

f  Additional  facts  concerning  the  epileptic  will  be  found  in  Table 
VI,  p.  90,  and  in  Appendix  A,  Tables  1 5  and  16,  pages  290  and  291 . 

I  Four  of  these  men  were  insane  as  well  as  epileptic  and  one  was 
feeble-minded. 

109 


HOMELESS    MEN 

accomplished.  Between  attacks  most  of  them 
were  so  normal  mentally,  and  so  well  physically, 
that  they  seemed  to  have  a  great  advantage  over 
either  the  insane  or  the  feeble-minded.  Practi- 
cally, we  found  that  they  were  almost  as  difficult 
as  the  latter  classes  to  keep  employed  and  to 
render  self-supporting.  Epileptics  who  have  good 
homes  to  fall  back  upon  when  unemployed  may  be 
able  to  earn  their  own  support  between  attacks, 
but  those  with  whom  we  dealt,  who  were  homeless 
and  friendless,  were  not  able  to  do  so. 

Provision  for  the  care  of  epileptics  throughout 
the  country  is  more  inadequate  even  than  for 
the  feeble-minded.  Only  Massachusetts,  New 
York,  Ohio,  New  Jersey,  Indiana,  and  a  few  other 
states*  have  made  separate  provision  for  their 
care,  although  in  some  there  are  private  and 
semi-private  charities  which  treat  a  few  cases.  It 
is  estimated  that  there  are  at  the  present  time 
about  160,000  epileptics  in  the  United  States,  and 
only  about  5000  in  all  are  cared  for  in  institutions 
especially  designed  for  them.  Others  are  in  insti- 
tutions for  the  insane  and  the  feeble-minded,  but 
the  great  majority  of  epileptics  throughout  the 
country  are  not  receiving  any  form  of  institutional 
care.  Men  frequently  begged  us  to  send  them  to 
institutions  for  treatment,  but  there  was  in  Illinois 
no  place  other  than  the  poorhouse  to  which  they 

*  Among  these  are  Kansas,  Texas,  Virginia,  North  Carolina  and 
Pennsylvania,  which  have  either  established  separate  institutions  or 
epileptic  divisions  in  asylums  erected  for  the  care  of  the  feeble-minded 
or  the  insane. 

110 


INSANE,    FEEBLE-MINDED,    AND    EPILEPTIC 

might  be  sent,  and  they  very  generally  revolted 
at  the  thought  of  entering  that  institution.  The 
need  of  agricultural  colonies  for  epileptics  is  very 
great.* 

We  at  the  Bureau  office  could  send  epileptics 
who  belonged  elsewhere  out  of  Chicago;  we  could 
secure  aid  from  relatives  for  a  few,  and  could  find 
temporary  employment,  from  time  to  time,  for 
some  others.  In  a  few  instances,  where  insanity 
was  linked  with  epilepsy,  we  could  and  did  place 
men  in  asylums  for  the  chronic  insane.  But  upon 
the  whole  our  work  for  this  class,  as  for  the  feeble- 
minded, was  unsatisfactory  and  must  remain  so 
until  the  needs  of  these  pathetic  groups  are  more 
generally  recognized  and  better  provision  is  made 
for  their  care  in  all  states  of  the  Union. 

*  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  10,000  epileptics  in  the  state  of 
Illinois  alone,  and  efforts  to  secure  an  appropriation  from  the  legisla- 
ture to  establish  a  state  colony  for  their  care,  have  several  times  been 
made. 


CHAPTER  VII 
HOMELESS  OLD  MEN 

NO  class  of  our  applicants  from  among  the 
homeless  seemed  to  be  more  uniformly  hope- 
less and  unhappy  than  the  men  who  had 
passed  sixty,  and  who  realized  that  the  doors  of 
industrial  opportunity  were  being  closed  against 
them  and  that  it  was  only  a  question  of  a  short 
time  before  they  must  become  wholly  dependent 
upon  charity.  The  tendency  of  modern  industry 
is  to  discard  from  its  ranks  younger  and  younger 
men.  If  chance  throws  them  out  of  employment, 
men  who  have  passed  sixty  must  almost  invariably 
resort  to  casual  labor.  It  is  almost  equally 
difficult  for  men  in  their  fifties  to  find  well-paid 
employment,  while  in  certain  lines  of  work  men 
who  drop  out  in  their  forties  or  even  in  their  latter 
thirties  are  not  eligible  for  re-employment,  be- 
cause they  have  passed  the  fixed  limits  of  age 
which  prevail  in  those  occupations.  The  men  of 
these  latter  ages  who  find  themselves  obliged  to 
apply  for  charity  solely  for  this  reason  are,  of 
course,  very  few  in  number  compared  with  those 
who  have  passed  sixty  and  who  find  the  infirmities 
of  real  and  not  of  arbitrarily  fixed  old  age  compli- 

1 12 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

eating  their  problems  of  employment.  Many  men 
of  sixty,  however,  are  still  quite  strong  and  well, 
and  none  of  these,  if  he  is  self-respecting  and  under 
the  necessity  for  self-support,  will  accept  the  ver- 
dict that  he  is  "too  old"  to  be  of  further  indus- 
trial value  without  a  bitter  struggle  to  prove  the 
contrary. 

"  I  am  as  well  able  to  work  as  I  ever  was.  Better, 
too,  because  I  am  so  much  more  experienced  than 
a  young  fellow/' 

"Experience  ought  to  count  for  something.  I 
know  there  is  a  place  for  me  somewhere  if  I  can 
only  find  it." 

"  It  cannot  be  possible  that  I  am  never  going  to 
have  steady  work  again.  1  am  not  old  enough  to 
be  thrown  out  yet.  I'll  get  located  soon,  but  I'll 
have  to  ask  for  a  little  temporary  aid." 

Pitifully  often  have  men  in  the  neighborhood 
of  sixty  made  such  statements  when  applying  to 
the  Bureau  of  Chanties  for  work  or  for  financial 
aid. 

The  first  time  they  apply  they  assure  us  it  will 
be  "only  a  temporary  matter."  They  are  certain 
that  they  will  soon  find  work  and  be  able  to  repay 
all  that  may  be  advanced.  Later  on  in  the  struggle 
come  confessions  of  failure  and  discouragement 
and  suffering.  From  being  usually  self-supporting 
and  only  occasionally  lapsing  into  temporary  de- 
pendence they  become  at  best  only  partly  self- 
supporting  with  almost  continuous  need  for  some 
charitable  assistance. 

8  113 


HOMELESS    MEN 


TABLE   VIII.— GENERAL    DATA   CONCERNING    132 
HOMELESS  OLD  MEN 


A.    AGES,  BY  GROUPS 

601064 48 

65  to  69 37 

70  to  74 23 

75  to  79 15 

80  to' 84 5 

8510.89 2 

90  to  94 2 


Total .  . 


132 


B.    NATIVITY 

American  (i  Negro) 68 

Irish 24 

German 15 

English 13 

Canadian 4 

Scandinavian 2 

I  talian i 

Swiss i 

Not  known 4 


Total 


132 


C.    OCCUPATIONS 

Skilled 28 

Partly  skilled 18 

Unskilled 37 

In  professions 8 

In  business 13 

Clerical  workers  and  sales- 
men    ii 

Miscellaneous i 

Not  known 16 


1). 


Total . 


AMOUNT  OF   SELF-SUPPORT 
AT  TIME  OF  APPLICATION 

Fully  self-supporting 3 

Usually  self-supporting  but 

occasionally  dependent.     37 
Only   partly  self-supporting 
and  in  chronic  need  of 

some  assistance 22 

Wholly  dependent 62 

On  borderline 3 

Not  known  how  supported.        5 


132 


Total 


132 


"Is  tired  and  discouraged  and  says  he  is  afraid  he 
will  have  to  give  up  and  go  to  Dunning*  soon/' 

is  an  entry  on  one  record. 

"Says  he  is  physically  well  but  mentally  weary/* 
is  another. 

"  Is  having  a  hard  struggle. 

"  Is  as  strong  as  ever,  but  finds  it  increasingly  hard 
to  get  work  because  he  looks  old/' 

this  from  the  record  of  a  man  of  sixty  who  had 
lived  forty  years  in  Chicago  and  who  had  had  good 
work  records  with  a  number  of  Chicago  firms. 

*  The  Chicago  Almshouse. 
114 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

lias  had  so  little  work  this  winter  that  he  has 
almost  starved  but  cannot  bear  the  thought  of  the 
poorhouse." 

"  Unable  to  find  any  work.  Says  he  is  penniless, 
friendless,  and  discouraged." 

"  Has  no  work  yet  but  says  he  would  rather  starve 
than  go  to  Dunning." 

Such  entries  as  these  may  be  found  on  50  per 
cent  of  the  records  of  the  old  men  applying  to  the 
Bureau,  and  these  are  not  men  who  have  been  idle 
and  profligate,  but  respectable  Irish,  German,  or 
American  workmen,  or  in  some  cases,  business  or 
professional  men,  many  of  whom  have  spent  all 
their  lives  in  Chicago  and  have  contributed  their 
fair  quota  to  its  prosperity  and  wealth. 

While,  as  has  been  stated,  the  dependence  of  a 
number  of  men  who  were  under  sixty  was  un- 
questionably due  to  advancing  age,  I  have  limited 
the  study  of  the  old  men  of  the  thousand  to  the 
i  32  who  were  sixty  or  more  years  old.  The  greater 
number  of  these  were  between  sixty  and  seventy; 
with  few  exceptions,  they  were  all  still  trying  to 
earn  their  own  support,  and  their  appeals  were 
first,  if  not  solely,  for  work.  Even  of  men  over 
seventy,  a  few  asked  for  employment. 

In  nationality,  the  majority  of  the  men  were 
American;  82  per  cent  were  English  speaking. 
There  were  very  few  recent  immigrants  in  the 
group  and  comparatively  few  were  newcomers  in 
Chicago.  At  the  time  of  their  applications  42 
were  apparently  in  sound  health  and  not  handi- 
capped by  loss  of  limbs.  But  of  the  90  who  were 


HOMELESS   MEN 

crippled  or  ill,  only  one  was  suffering  from  a  tem- 
porary illness  from  which  he  later  recovered.  Most 
of  the  others  were  suffering  from  diseases  or  con- 
ditions common  to  old  age,  such  as  rheumatism, 
paralysis,  blindness,  deafness,  etc.,  from  which 
they  were  unlikely  ever  wholly,  to  recover.  The 
"feebleness  of  age"  is  the  only  difficulty  entered 
in  the  records  of  24  men. 

Only  three  of  the  old  men  in  the  1 32  are  listed 
as  self-supporting.  These  three  owned  property 
and  were  only  accidentally  and  for  a  short  time 
in  need  of  assistance  from  the  Bureau.  One 
whose  case  has  already  been  described,*  had  been 
sand-bagged  and  robbed  immediately  after  his 
arrival  in  Chicago,  becoming  insane  from  the 
blow.  Upon  his  recovery  we  helped  him  get  into 
touch  with  his  friends  and  he  has  been  in  no  further 
need.  The  second  was  a  man  of  seventy-three  who 
owned  a  farm  and  received  a  pension,  but  who  had 
answered  a  matrimonial  advertisement  in  person 
and  had  been  drugged  and  robbed  and  turned 
adrift.  We  aided  him  until  his  son  came  to  take 
him  home.  The  third  man  was  eighty  years  old.f 
These  men,  while  for  the  moment  in  real  need  of 
friendly  care  and  financial  aid,  were  not  in  any  sense 
dependents,  and  their  cases  may  herebeexcepted. 


*  See  Chapter  VI,  p.  94. 

t  The  condition  of  old  men  who  wander  about  aimlessly  from  place 
to  place  is  not  due  to  a  definite  disorder,  as  is  sometimes  thought  to 
be  the  case,  but  very  likely  arises  from  all  sorts  of  different  states  of 
diminished  efficiency  which  old  age,  or  previous  defects  of  personality 
plus  old  age,  bring  about. 

1 16 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

Of  the  remaining  129,  37  (more  than  one-quarter 
of  the  total  number)  were  still  in  the  main  self- 
supporting  when  they  came  to  our  attention. 
These  were  the  younger  and  the  stronger  of  the 
old  men  and,  as  before  stated,  they  usually  asked 
only  for  employment  or  for  very  temporary  assist- 
ance. But  the  fact  that  all  of  them  had  passed 
sixty  made  it  inevitable  that  they  would  soon  lose 
their  strength  and  ability  to  work  and  would 
become,  like  the  men  of  the  third  group,  only 
partly  self-supporting  and  frequently  dependent. 
In  time  all  would  reach  a  state  of  total  dependence 
similar  to  that  of  almost  half  of  the  old  men  at 
the  date  of  their  first  appeals  to  the  Bureau.* 

Roughly  classified  on  the  basis  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  life  histories  of  the  1 32  old  men,  it  appears 
that  drink,  licentiousness,  spend-thrift  habits,  and 
vagrancy  are  the  most  clearly  indicated  causes 
of  dependence  in  old  age  in  39  instances  (30  per 
cent  of  the  cases) ;  and  that  in  85  instances  (64  per 
cent)  the  men  were  of  generally  good  character; 
while  of  eight  of  the  men  (6  per  cent)  too  little 
is  known  to  make  a  statement. 

The  following  examples  are  fairly  typical  of  the 
licentious  and  spend-thrift  cases.  L.  G.  was 
sixty-five  when  he  first  applied  to  the  Bureau. 
We  found  upon  investigation  that  he  had  been 
tramping  and  begging  for  twenty  years  and  that 
his  entrance  into  the  life  of  the  road  had  been 
coincident  with  his  final  desertion  of  a  hitherto 

*  See  Table  VIII,  p.  114. 
117 


HOMELESS   MEN 

much  neglected  and  abused  family.  It  is  probable 
that  his  whole  life  had  been  as  misspent  as  were 
its  declining  years,  but  at  seventy — his  age  when 
he  last  called  at  our  office — he  seemed  to  be  as 
robust,  as  insolent,  and  as  indifferent  as  at  any 
time  in  his  career.  He  is  known  to  the  charity 
organization  societies  of  almost  every  large  city 
in  the  Union. 

Another  old  man  had  been  for  a  number  of  years 
prior  to  our  acquaintance  with  him,  a  "wharf  rat," 
an  indescribably  besotted  and  degraded  type  of 
lake-boat  stevedore. 

One  can  feel  nothing  but  pity  for  men  like  these 
who  have  to  the  very  end  of  life  wasted  its  oppor- 
tunities for  usefulness.  But  few  of  them  would 
either  appreciate  or  desire  different  care  from  that 
accorded  at  the  poorhouses  into  which,  as  a  rule, 
they  naturally  gravitate  to  end  their  days.  When 
they  applied  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  therefore, 
we  felt  no  compunctions  in  urging  them  to  go  to 
Dunning,  for  we  knew  that  they  would  be  far 
better  off  there  than  on  the  streets,  and  realized 
how  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  it  would  be  to  raise 
from  private  sources  the  money  necessary  to  pen- 
sion them  or  to  place  them  in  private  institu- 
tions. 

It  was  old  men  of  an  entirely  different  class  who 
furnished  some  of  our  most  puzzling  problems  of 
treatment.  Eighty-five  of  the  132,  as  has  been 
said,  were  of  good  character  and  habits,  and  had 
always,  previous  to  the  advent  of  old  age,  been 

.18 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

self-respecting  and  fully  self-supporting  members 
of  society.  With  these  men  the  causes  which  were 
apparently  most  responsible  for  their  final  de- 
pendence were  (i)  the  receipt  of  irregular  and 
insufficient  wages  over  a  period  of  years  which 
made  saving  for  age  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
(2)  the  rearing  of  families  which  had  exhausted 
resources  and  in  the  end  left  no  member  able  to 
care  for  the  parents,  (3)  impracticability,  or  lack 
of  "business  sense"  on  the  part  of  upright  and 
industrious  men,  (4)  loss  of  savings  through  bank 
failures,  (5)  business  reverses  for  which  the  men 
themselves  could  not  be  blamed,  (6)  ill  health  or 
crippling  accidents  which  destroyed  earning  ca-  ? 
pacity  before  sufficient  savings  for  age  had  been 
accumulated,  and  a  few  other  miscellaneous  causes, 
none  of  which  indicated  failure  upon  the  part  of 
the  men  themselves  to  do  their  best  during  their 
working  years  to  prepare  for  oncoming  age,  j 

1  have  not  attempted  to  list  these  causes  in  the 
exact  order  of  their  importance,  for  two  or  more 
of  them  so  often  appeared  in  a  single  case  that  it 
is  difficult  to  judge  their  relative  values  in  the 
whole  group.  For  instance,  one  man  lost  all  his 
savings  ($  15,000)  in  a  bank  failure  within  a  month 
after  a  fall  which  broke  his  hip  and  made  him  a 
cripple  for  the  ten  remaining  years  of  his  life.  If 
he  had  suffered  either  one  of  these  misfortunes 
alone  he  would  never  have  become  a  dependent, 
but  he  was  unable  to  recover  from  the  double 
blow.  In  another  case,  a  business  man  who  had 

119 


HOMELESS   MEN 

lost  all  that  he  possessed  in  the  panic  of  1893  had 
not  yet  re-established  himself  when  he  became 
totally  blind. 

Not  fewer  than  41,  or  almost  50  per  cent  of 
these  85  unfortunate  old  men  were  of  considerable 
refinement  and  education;  a  few  were  university 
men.  Among  the  latter  there  were  several  men 
of  studious  habits.  I  recall  the  tiny  room  of  one 
which  was  literally  filled  with  books,  pamphlets, 
and  manuscripts;  not  a  chair  in  it,  not  even  the 
cot,  was  available  as  a  seat  until  it  had  been  cleared 
in  part  of  its  burden  of  books.  Another  man,  for 
whom  we  finally  secured  life  work  of  a  somewhat 
mechanical  sort  with  a  publishing  firm,  was  a 
writer  of  ability,  possessed  of  broad  experience  and 
culture.  Dependence  in  each  case  was  largely 
due  to  the  lack  of  "business  sense"  before  referred 
to. 

That  men  like  these,  or  like  any  of  the  85  whose 
lives  contained  no  history  of  vice,  should  be  forced 
in  their  old  age  to  seek  charity  at  all,  is  a  pitiful 
thing,  but  that  the  agency  to  which  they  applied 
for  aid  should  find  difficulty — the  greatest  diffi- 
culty— in  securing  any  sort  of  adequate  help  for 
them  is  a  still  greater  pity.  Yet  this  was  the  case 
in  a  majority  of  instances. 

Realizing  as  we  did  that,  although  the  men  past 
sixty  might  still  be  self-supporting  for  a  time  they 
would,  in  most  instances,  soon  be  in  need  of  per- 
manent care,  we  always  tried  in  our  first  interviews 
and  investigations  to  discover  all  possible  resources 

1 20 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

for  help.  This  was  done  in  each  case,  whether  the 
men  applied  for  aid  or  for  work.  It  required 
much  tact  in  questioning  and  was  by  no  means  an 
easy  task  in  many  cases  to  gain  the  facts  we  needed, 
for  the  men  were  apt  to  be  supersensitive  and  to 
resent  the  idea  that  their  needs  might  be  more 
than  temporary. 

One  poor  old  man,  whom  we  knew  for  three 
years,  almost  starved  to  death  in  his  room  one 
winter  before  he  would  admit  any  necessity  for 
charitable  aid  or  confess  that  he  could  no  longer 
earn  enough  to  support  life.  When  he  made  his 
final  surrender  to  age,  he  gave  us  the  address  of  a 
niece  which  he  had  withheld  during  all  our  ac- 
quaintance with  him.  By  the  exchange  of  a  single 
letter  we  arranged  for  the  old  man's  comfortable 
care  in  the  home  of  this  relative  for  the  remainder 
of  his  days,  but  it  had  taken  three  years  of  suffering 
to  bring  him  to  the  point  of  accepting  it. 

This  was  an  extreme  case.  Usually,  we  did  not 
find  it  so  difficult  to  persuade  old  men  that  it 
would  be  better  to  allow  relatives  to  assist  them. 
The  real  difficulty  was  to  find  any  who  were  willing 
and  able  to  do  so.  In  a  few  instances,  where  men 
had  for  a  number  of  years  lost  all  trace  of  their 
families,  they  were  able -to  give  slight  clues  by 
means  of  which,  with  the  co-operating  help  of 
charity  organization  societies  of  other  cities,  we 
finally  succeeded  in  finding  their  friends.  But 
only  in  some  30  instances  altogether  did  relatives 
furnish  adequate  assistance. 

121 


HOMELESS   MEN 

The  conjugal  condition  of  the  1 32  old  men  was 
as  follows : 

Single 58 

Married 5 

Widowed 47 

Divorced 3 

Separated 19 

Total 132 

Their  children  are  the  natural  and  most  usual 
sources  of  help  for  the  aged,  but  of  these  particular 
old  men  only  5 1  had  living  children  and  we  failed 
to  find  these  in  12  cases.*  Of  the  children  whom 
we  did  find,  a  number  were  either  unwilling  or 
unable  to  help  their  fathers.  In  four  cases  where 
children  refused  assistance,  we  learned  that  the 
men  had  deserted  their  families  when  the  children 
were  young  and  helpless  and  it  was  perhaps  natural 
that  they  should  later  refuse  to  give  filial  aid  when 
the  vagabond  parents  needed  it.  Similar  refusals 
to  aid  several  of  the  habitual  drunkards  came  from 
sons  who  had  suffered  much  because  of  their 
fathers'  vices. 

When  the  men  were  of  good  character  we  not 
infrequently  were  able  to  secure  more  or  less  help 
for  them  from  employers,  but  this  was  not  a  re- 
source in  any  large  proportion  of  the  cases  for  two 
reasons:  first,  37  men  (28  per  cent)  had  been 
day  or  unskilled  laborers,  and  even  if  they  had 
worked  (as  was  not  usually  the  case)  for  a  single 

*  See  Appendix  A,  Table  18,  p.  292. 
122 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

firm  for  any  considerable  length  of  time,  they  were 
but  little  known  to  the  companies  which  had 
employed  them.  The  second  reason  was  that  22 
men,  or  17  per  cent,  had  been  in  professions  (teach- 
ers, newspaper  writers,  artists,  etc.),  or  engaged  in 
small  businesses  of  their  own,  so  that  they  had  had 
no  employers  to  whom  we  could  appeal  in  their 
behalf.  When  to  this  total  of  59  men,  or  45  per 
cent  of  the  whole  number  we  add  those  who  had 
been  drunken,  profligate,  vagrant,  and  ne'er-do- 
well  for  a  number  of  years  (see  page  1 17),  it  will 
be  seen  that  employers  could  be  considered  as  a 
possible  resource  in  only  a  comparatively  small 
proportion  of  the  cases.  Uji_fact,  investigation 
proved  that  a  large  proportion  of  these  old  men 
were  actually  just  what  they  claimed  to  be,  not  only 
homeless  but  absolutely  friendless,  and  we  found 
it  very  difficult  to  secure  from  relatives,  employ- 
ers, friends,  or  any  other  sources  the  funds  neces- 
sary to  pension  or  care  for  them  in  any  way  out- 
side of  the  almshouse.  _j 

In  only  12  cases*  were  we  able  to  secure  pledges 
of  enough  money  from  persons  interested  in  their 
welfare  to  pay  old  men  small  weekly  pensions 
for  the  remaining  weeks  of  their  lives.  Those  pen- 
sioned had  all  lived  useful  lives  and  were  depend- 
ent in  age  solely  from  misfortune.  The  sums  paid 
to  them  were  $4.00  to  $5.00  a  week.  Some  of 
these  men  have  died,  but  the  pensions  of  several 

*  These  12  are  in  addition  to  the  30  men  for  whom  we  persuaded 
relatives  to  take  the  entire  responsibility. 

I23 


HOMELESS    MEN 

are  still  being  paid  and  additional  ones  for  other 
old  men  have  since  been  established. 

This  method  of  helping  is  unquestionably  the 
one  most  acceptable  to  old  men,  for  it  permits  them 
to  remain  in  their  accustomed  neighborhoods  and 
to  be  quite  independent  in  their  actions.  Dread 
of  life  in  an  institution  seems  to  be  almost  universal 
among  them,  although  the  particular  institution 
most  dreaded  is,  of  course,  the  poorhouse.  Unless, 
however,  a  pension  is  promised  for  as  long  as 
needed,  to  give  it  is  of  little  use,  one  of  its  chief 
values  being  that  it  relieves  the  mind  of  the  recipi- 
ent from  worry,  as  well  as  his  body  from  hunger. 
Dread  and  uncertainty  of  the  future  cause  the 
greatest  suffering  to  the  homeless  aged.  But  no 
one  who  has  not  personally  tried  to  secure  the 
contributions  necessary  to  pension  an  old  man 
can  realize  how  hard  is  the  task.  The  fact  that 
an  amount  must  be  paid  regularly  and  for  a 
period  of  time  which  cannot  possibly  be  foretold, 
usually  makes  even  near  relatives  of  old  men 
hesitate  to  pledge  themselves,  and  persons  upon 
whom  they  have  no  claim  will  not  usually  sub- 
scribe to  such  funds  at  all.  Even  50  cents  or  one 
dollar  a  month,  when  it  must  be  pledged  for  an 
indefinite  length  of  time,  seems  to  most  persons 
too  much  of  an  obligation  to  assume,  but  there 
must  be  at  least  16  one-dollar-a-month  pledges 
before  even  a  small  pension  can  be  guaranteed. 

We  found,  too,  that  it  was  much  more  difficult 
to  persuade  persons  to  be  financially  responsible 

124 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

for  the  care  of  the  old-  particularly  of  old  mcn- 
than  it  was  of  tlu*  yomi^.  Interest  in  children  is 
mmvi-Nal  and  our  appeal  for  regular  pensions  to 
aid  widows  with  children,  or  for  "school  scholar- 
ships" to  enable  young  boys  and  girls  to  continue 
in  school  instead  of  going  to  work,  were  always 
promptly  responded  to.  This  difference  is,  of 
course,  to  be  expected,  since  work  for  the  young 
has  elements  of  hope  and  interest  in  it  which  must 
always  be  lacking  in  work  for  the  old.  Perhaps 
this  is  also  the  reason  why  homes  and  institutions 
for  children  are  numerous  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  and  are  sometimes  in  excess  of  existing 
needs,  while  those  for  old  people  are  so  compara- 
tively few  that  actual  suffering  results.^ 

The  needs  of  only  one  particular  class  of  the 
aged  are  at  the  present  time  at  all  adequately  met. 
Soldiers'  homes  and  soldiers'  pensions  for  the 
veterans  of  the  Civil  War,  at  least  in  the  northern 
states,  have  for  many  years  furnished  aid  to  a 
large  proportion  of  the  old  men  in  the  country 
who  were  or  are  in  need  of  such  help.  This  in 
itself  may  account  for  the  fact  that  the  general 
public  has  not  yet  begun  to  realize  that  within  ten 
or  fifteen  years  the  number  of  old  men  who  were 
not  Union  soldiers  has  been  steadily  growing. 
Among  this  increasingly  large  class  of  old  men  who 
do  not,  or  cannot,  receive  aid  from  the  govern- 
ment, there  are  and  will  continue  to  be  many  for 
whom  institutional  or  other  care  outside  of  alms- 
houses  must  be  provided. 

125 


HOMELESS    MEN 

There  are  not  enough  homes  for  the  aged  of 
either  sex,  but  while  the  number  of  homes  for 
aged  women  may  not  be*  adequate  it  is  probably 
more  nearly  so  than  is  the  number  for  men;  not 
only  because  homes  for  women  are  really  more 
numerous  than  those  which  admit  men,  but  because 
by  the  nature  of  their  training,  men  are  less  capable 
of  caring  for  themselves  as  they  grow  old  than  are 
women.  A  woman's  ability  to  cook,  to  sew  and. 
mend,  to  wash  dishes  and  look  after  children,  until 
she  is  quite  advanced  in  years,  renders  her  a  much 
more  useful  member  of  a  family  than  is  an  old 
man;  and  a  friendless  woman  is  likely  to  be  offered 
her  board  and  care  in  return  for  the  little  work  she 
can  do  in  a  private  family  some  years  after  a  man 
of  the  same  age  has  been  declared  industrially 
worthless  and  turned  onto  the  streets  to  starve 
or  beg.  An  old  woman  living  on  an  income  of 
$10  a  month  can  make  a  real  home  for  herself 
in  almost  any  place  where  she  finds  the  necessary 
roof  and  four  sheltering  walls.  But  men  have  no 
such  ability,  and  for  this  reason  if  for  no  other 
they  stand  in  pathetic  need  of  home  care  as  soon 
as  their  earning  capacity  is  gone,  whether  Home  be 
spelled  with  a  small  letter  or  a  large  one. 

When  in  trying  to  secure  adequate  aid  for  self- 
respecting  old  men  we  found  that  there  were 
neither  relatives  nor  friends  who  could  be  in- 
terested in  their  behalf,  and  when  because  of 
breaking  health  the  men  were  no  longer  able  to 
work,  we  invariably  were  confronted  with  a 

126 


HOMELESS   OLD   MEN 

problem  which  in  most  cases  we  were  unable  to 
solve  because  the  lack  of  institutions  made  it 
impossible  for  us  to  offer  the  men  the  sort  of  care 
they  should  have  had.  As  before  stated,  there 
were  a  few  men  whom  we  did  not  hesitate  to  send 
out  to  Dunning  and  who  were  quite  willing  to  go 
there,  but  of  the  25  whom  we  finally  placed  in  the 
poorhouse,  at  least  16  should  have  been  cared  for 
in  some  place  where  they  could  have  associated 
with  a  better  class  of  men  and  where  they  would 
have  been  spared  the  unmerited  stigma  of  shame 
which  their  residence  in  the  poorhouse  entailed. 
We  placed  six  men  in  soldiers'  homes  and  two  in 
homes  managed  by  the  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor. 
These  latter  institutions  care  for  both  men  and 
women  and  do  not  charge  an  admission  fee,  an  im- 
portant point  in  their  favor  when  old  persons  are 
without  means  or  friends.  But  in  Chicago,  at  least, 
we  could  rarely  place  men  in  these  homes;  they 
were  usually  filled  to  their  utmost  capacity. 

Although  we  corresponded  with  managers  of 
private  institutions  of  other  types  in  various  parts 
of  the  country,  and  tried  in  a  number  of  cases  to 
secure  admissions  for  old  men  in  whom  we  were 
interested,  we  only  once  succeeded  in  our  efforts. 
In  this  one  case,  after  months  of  waiting  and  the 
exchange  of  many  letters,  we  finally  placed  an 
old  man  whose  sister  paid  the  $300  entrance  fee, 
in  a  new  institution  for  the  aged  in  the  state  of 
Kansas.  In  another  case  we  almost  succeeded 
in  getting  the  required  combination  of  a  vacancy, 

127 


HOMELESS    MEN 

exactly  the  right  sort  of  old  man,  and  the  large 
admission  fee,  which  would  have  enabled  us  to 
place  another  man  in  an  institution  in  Ohio,  but 
in  the  end  we  failed.  In  Illinois  we  could  learn 
of  no  private  homes  for  old  men  which  had  not 
long-  waiting-lists. 

It  is  altogether  probable,  however,  that  when  the 
present  lack  of  adequate  provision  for  the  care 
of  the  aged  is  once  fully  realized  in  this  coun- 
try it  will  be  satisfactorily  met.*  The  soldiers' 
homes  in  time  may  quite  naturally  be  utilized  for 
aged  men  who  have  not  been  soldiers.  But  in  the 
meantime,  a  large  amount  of  wholly  unmerited 
suffering  among  the  aged  might  be  prevented  if 
small  pensions  for  certain  types  of  men  could  more 
readily  be  secured  from  private  benevolent  sources, 
and  if  the  existing  institutions  for  the  aged  were 
better  supported  and  endowed  so  that  they  could, 
when  necessary,  remit  the  high  admission  fees 
which  at  present  effectually  bar  their  doors  to 
respectable  but  really  friendless  and  homeless  aged 
men. 

*  Various  plans  are  now  being  tried  in  different  countries  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  aged  poor,  the  descriptions  of  which  cannot  be  entered 
into  in  this  volume.  Whether  small  institutional  homes,  however, 
to  which  old  men  or  women  separately,  or  husbands  and  wives  to- 
gether may  retire  when  they  are  without  means  of  support  shall  be 
built  by  the  state,  or  whether  private  benevolence  will  meet  this  need, 
is  impossible  to  foretell.  But  even  if,  as  is  the  case  in  countries  like 
England,  the  state  shall  undertake  to  pension  all  persons  over  a  certain 
age,  or  as  in  countries  like  Germany  a  form  of  insurance  to  which 
employers,  working  men  and  women  themselves,  and  the  state  jointly 
contribute,  shall  some  time  be  adopted  in  this  country,  it  will  still  be 
necessary  for  social  workers  to  give  careful  individual  treatment  to 
cases  of  distress  among  the  aged. 

128 


CHAPTER  VIII 
OCCUPATIONS  OF  THE  MEN 

IT  is  difficult  to  make  any  satisfactory  classi- 
fication of  the  trades  and  occupations  of  the 
men  under  consideration.  In  America  prob- 
ably more  than  in  any  country  in  the  world  men 
frequently  shift  from  one  form  of  employment 
to  another.  The  pioneer  spirit  which  has  not  yet 
worn  itself  out;  the  development  of  the  resources 
of  the  country;  combinations  in  trade,  and  many 
other  changing  industrial  and  social  conditions, 
are  continually  leading  men  to  abandon  one  form 
of  work  and  take  up  another.  This  is  true  in  all 
fields  of  work  and  in  all  classes  of  society.  The 
man  who  inherits  his  father's  business,  trade,  or 
profession,  and  follows  it  to  the  end  of  his  life 
as  so  many  men  in  older  countries  do,  is  the  great 
exception  in  America.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  who  has 
been  cowboy,  writer,  police  commissioner,  assist- 
ant secretary  of  the  navy,  soldier,  governor, 
president,  hunter,  editor,  and  has  not  yet  reached 
the  end  of  his  career,  is  not  unlike  thousands  of 
other  Americans  in  his  versatility  and  in  the  diver- 
sity of  the  occupations  which  he  has  followed. 
When  to  the  various  positions  which  an  ambitious 
9  129 


HOMELESS    MEN 

and  useful  man  is  quite  likely  to  hold  in  the  course 
of  his  working  years  must  be  added  several  others 
which  he  takes  up  because  he  is  no  longer  ambitious 
and  useful,  and  because  drink  and  misfortune  have 
thrust  him  down,  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  to 
list  but  a  single  one  of  his  many  occupations  as 
the  trade  or  business  of  the  man,  will  be  unsatis- 
factory if  not  actually  misleading.*  For  example, 
among  these  homeless  men,  one  was  born  on  a 
farm  and  as  a  boy  helped  his  father  about  the 
place  as  ( i )  farmhand ;  when  older  he  went  into  the 
village  and  learned  the  trade  of  (2)  harnessmaker; 
about  this  time  he  fell  under  the  spell  of  an 
evangelist  who  persuaded  him  to  abandon  his 
trade  and  enter  the  ministry.  He  did  so  and  for 
six  or  eight  years  was  (3)  a  country  preacher;  he 
then  began  to  doubt  his  call  to  this  profession  and 
soon  afterward  left  it  and  went  to  a  nearby  city 
where  he  studied  law.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  and  became  a  successful  (4)  lawyer.  During 
this  period  he  held  several  political  positions, 
(5)  politician,  including  that  of  county  attorney. 
He  began  to  drink  heavily,  and  at  fifty-eight  had 
lost  standing  and  friends  and  was  completely 
"down  and  out."  He  again  sought  employment 
in  the  trade  of  his  youth,  but  finally  sank  to  (6) 
casual  labor  and  begging.  Under  what  occupation 
shall  this  man  be  listed? 

Another  man  was  first  a  farmer,  then  a  car- 

*  For  a  digest  of  the  occupations  of  91  men  skilled  or  partly  skilled 
in  more  than  one  line  of  work,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  19,  p.  293. 

130 


OCCUPATIONS   OF   THE    MEN 

pentcr,  then  a  lawyer  and  politician  and  for  several 
terms  a  member  of  the  legislature  of  an  eastern 
state.  When  a  little  past  forty  he  went  into  the 
wholesale  liquor  business,  at  which  he  made  a 
moderate  fortune.  The  drink  habit,  however,  later 
unfitted  him  for  business  and  from  this  and  other 
causes  he  lost  his  money.  Finally,  when  almost 
penniless,  he  went  to  another  city,  determined  to 
make  a  fresh  start.  Here  his  age  and  his  appear- 
ance were  against  him  in  the  search  for  clerical 
work  and  he  turned  his  hand  to  anything  he 
could  find  to  do,  including  carpentry  and  work  in  a 
foundry.  Finding  such  work  too  heavy  he  finally 
drifted  down  into  complete  and  continuous  de- 
pendence. When  asked  his  business  this  man 
answered  that  he  was  "a  carpenter  by  trade,"- 
but  how  insignificant  a  part  of  his  industrial  career 
had  been  devoted  to  his  trade.  A  third  man  had 
been  a  teacher,  a  farmer,  a  horse  dealer,  a  banker, 
a  casual  laborer,  and  finally  a  beggar.  Still 
another  had  been  a  teacher  of  Latin  and  Greek  in 
a  high  school,  a  hotel  clerk,  a  church  sexton,  and 
a  dish-washer  in  cheap  restaurants.  Fifteen 
distinct  lines  of  work  are  represented  in  the 
industrial  histories  of  these  four  men,  and  they 
have  held  a  total  of  at  least  21  different  positions. 
But  their  careers,  as  may  be  seen  by  reference 
to  the  digest  in  Appendix  A,  are  by  no  means  un- 
usual or  extreme. 

To  list  men  by  the  trades  of  their  youth  would 
often,  as  has  been  shown,  be  to  ignore  the  occupa- 


HOMELESS    MEN 

tions  of  the  years  of  their  greatest  industrial 
efficiency.  To  list  them  by  their  recent  or  last 
occupations  would  be  even  more  to  misrepresent 
their  training  and  ability,  since  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  these  men  had  been  gradually  deteriorating 
for  a  number  of  years  previous  to  their  applications 
to  the  Bureau,  and  their  "end-of-the-line"  occupa- 
tions were  very  different  from  those  which  they 
had  followed  ten  years  earlier.*  But  to  decide 
which  of  the  several  occupations  of  the  years  of 
their  prime  should  be  considered  the  chief  one  has, 
in  some  cases,  presented  a  puzzling  problem  to  the 
enumerator  and  one  which  the  man's  own  state- 
ment about  his  life's  work  did  not  always  help  to 
solve. 

Take,  for  example,  the  case  of  the  third  man  men- 
tioned above,  the  farmer,  horse  dealer,  and  banker 
who  finally  became  a  chronic  dependent.  Wearing 
a  dirty  broadcloth  frock  coat,  and  with  tears  rolling 
down  his  unshaven  cheeks,  this  man  assured  me 
that  his  business  was  banking  and  that  he  could 
not  get  started  again  because  he  lacked  capital; 
but  after  talking  with  him,  and  after  writing  in 
his  behalf  to  persons  who  had  known  him  for  some 
time,  I  entered  his  occupation  as  horse  dealer. 
In  his  earlier  years  as  a  farmer  he  had  taken  an 


*  We  learned  by  experience  that  degenerate  or  unfortunate  busi- 
ness or  professional  men,  clerks  and  salesmen  almost  invariably  take 
to  canvassing  or  seek  employment  with  the  addressing  companies, 
when  they  can  no  longer  work  in  their  own  lines,  while  the  final  occu- 
pations of  artisans  or  laborers  are  likely  to  be  peddling,  odd  jobs,  or 
dish-washing  in  cheap  restaurants. 

132 


OCCUPATIONS   OF   THE    MEN 

interest  in  stock  breeding  and  had  finally  special- 
ized in  horse  raising.  During  the  course  of  a  num- 
ber of  years  he  had  accumulated  a  considerable 
fortune  by  the  sale  of  fine  animals.  At  about  the 
age  of  fifty  he  had  invested  his  savings  toward  the 
establishment  of  a  bank  in  a  small  western  town, 
a  man  whom  he  knew  but  slightly  being  the  real 
banker.  When  a  year  or  two  later  this  partner 
absconded,  leaving  him  an  unmerited  burden  of  debt 
and  disgrace,  the  man  was  unable  to  endure  the 
obloquy  and  came  to  Chicago  where  no  one  knew 
him,  to  make  a  fresh  start.  He  had  never  before 
lived  in  a  city,  knew  little  of  clerical  work,  and 
had  not  been  an  active  laborer  in  a  great  many 
years.  He  had  no  money.  The  result  was  in- 
evitable. We  made  every  possible  effort  to  save 
the  man,  but  failed.  He  would  not  return  to  the 
little  city  where  he  was  known  and  might  pos- 
sibly, through  friends,  have  found  employment; 
and  in  Chicago  he  was  a  hopeless  misfit.  Hence, 
the  apparent  anomaly  of  a  banker  among  home- 
less men  applicants  for  chanty. 

We  always  made  an  effort  to  learn  from  appli- 
cants the  names  of  former  employers  and  the 
length  of  their  service  with  them;  and  when  men 
were  in  distress  because  of  illness  or  misfortune, 
or  when  they  were  dependent  because  of  old  age, 
we  were  generally  able  by  appealing  to  former 
long-time  employers  to  secure  help  for  them. 
In  one  or  two  instances  small  pensions  for  the 
remainder  of  life  were  contributed.  In  others, 

133 


HOMELESS   MEN 

life  positions  at  easy  work  were  provided;  and  in 
still  others,  lump  sums  were  given  which  tided 
applicants  over  their  periods  of  distress  without 
the  necessity  of  appeals  to  strangers. 

There  were  cases,  however,  in  which  the  men  had 
really  forgotten  how  long  they  had  been  employed 
and  others  in  which  they  overstated  their  periods 
of  legitimate  work,  not  with  the  intention  to 
deceive,  but  only  with  a  pitiful  and  laudable  desire 
to  impress  the  interviewer  with  the  fact  that  they 
had  once  known  better  days,  and  had  not  always 
been  the  hopeless  and  homeless  dependents  they 
now  were. 

In  other  ways  also  the  men  tried  to  represent 
themselves  as  more  valuable  or  important  in- 
dustrially than  the  facts  would  warrant.  A  drug 
clerk  with  some  knowledge  of  medicine  would 
claim  to  be  a  doctor;  a  machinist's  helper  would 
claim  to  be  a  machinist;  a  fireman  would  pose  as 
an  engineer.  If  we  were  able  to  investigate  the 
man's  history  at  all,  it  was  usually  not  difficult  to 
discover  and  correct  these  deceptions.  But  they 
occurred  so  frequently  that  statistics  in  regard  to 
the  occupations  and  trades  of  homeless  men  cannot 
be  depended  upon  as  accurate  unless  the  state- 
ments of  the  men  have  been  verified. 

Following  is  the  occupational  grouping  of  the 
one  thousand  men  as  compiled  from  our  records:* 

*  For  detailed  lists  of  the  different  occupations  or  professions  of 
the  men  included  in  the  above  groups,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  20, 
pp.  295-298. 

134 


OCCUPATIONS   OF   THE    MEN 

(a)  Professional 62 

(b)  Business 33 

(c)  Clerical  workers  and  salesmen  .       .114 

(d)  In  skilled  trades 213 

(e)  In  partly  skilled  trades        .       .       .109 

(f)  Miscellaneous 7 

(g)  In  unskilled  occupations      .  .  334 
(h)  No  work  record      ...  .68 
(i)  Work  record  not  known       ...     60 

Total 1000 

In  addition  to  the  personal  and  subjective  rea- 
sons for  the  variety  of  occupations  of  many  of  the 
men  under  discussion,  there  were  causes  of  more 
wide-sweeping  and  general  effect. 

The  sudden  and  enormous  increase  in  the  num- 
bers of  unemployed  and  wandering  men  in  the 
country  which  is  always  coincident  with  trade 
depressions  like  that  in  1907-8,  leaves  no  doubt 
that  the  causes  for  much  of  this  increase  of  un- 
employed men  and  this  variety  of  occupation  are 
industrial.  In  many  parts  of  the  West,  for 
instance,  there  are  numerous  small  and  growing 
business  enterprises,  both  mercantile  and  manu- 
facturing, and  we  are  told  that  during  periods  of 
financial  crises  a  large  number  of  these  enterprises 
fail,  thus  tending  to  throw  out  of  employment  men 
who  have  passed  the  prime  of  life.  It  is  often 
difficult  for  such  men  to  reinstate  themselves  and 
it  is  particularly  so  during  hard  times.  It  is  not 
strange,  therefore,  that  a  certain  proportion  of 
them  must  seek  casual  labor  which  often  means 
that  they  must  leave  their  homes.  These  tempo- 

135 


HOMELESS    MEN 

rary  separations  from  families  are  for  some  men  the 
first  steps  toward  vagrancy. 

Since  it  is  well  known  that  each  business  de- 
pression results  in  the  permanent  as  well  as  in  the 
temporary  augmentation  of  the  vagrant  popula- 
tion; and  since,  also,  even  in  normal  times  certain 
industrial  evils  are  responsible  for  the  creation  of 
a  certain  proportion  of  vagrants  each  year,  it 
could  probably  be  shown  that  the  vagrancy  of 
many  of  the  men  on  the  road  today,  as  well  as  the 
descent  of  others  to  casual  labor,  was  in  the  begin- 
ning due  to  an  industrial  cause.* 

As  we  have  seen,  there  were  few  bona  fide  vic- 
tims of  industrial  accidents,  but  one  industrial 
cause  of  vagrancy  which  we  frequently  noted  was 
the  effect  upon  very  good  men  of  the  high  speed 
pressure  under  which  they  are  so  often  required  to 
work.  We  knew  a  number  of  homeless  men  who 
were  very  fair  workmen  but  who  found  it  im- 
possible to  work  in  factories  or  in  other  places 
where  they  felt  themselves  driven  and  under 
pressure.  For  example,  a  young  Russian  who 
was  frequently  out  of  work  was  given  a  position 
of  some  responsibility  at  the  Municipal  Lodging 
House  one  winter  and  surprised  all  who  knew 
him  by  filling  it  remarkably  well.  When  removed 

*  In  regard  to  child  labor  as  a  cause  of  vagrancy  I  can  give  no 
figures,  for  not  all  nor  even  any  large  proportion  of  the  men  were 
questioned  as  to  the  age  at  which  they  began  work.  In  the  few  in- 
stances (some  100  or  more)  where  the  question  was  asked,  we  did  not 
find  that  the  men  had,  as  a  rule,  been  employed  unduly  early  in  life. 
I  Ins,  however,  is  such  negative  testimony  and  involves  such  a  small 
group  that  it  is  quite  worthless. 

136  , 


OCCUPATIONS   OF   THE    MEN 

from  it  ami  placed  in  regular  work  outside  of  the 
institution  he  failed  within  a  fortnight  and  was 
again  upon  the  streets.  The  superintendent  of 
the  lodging  house  asked  him  why  it  was  that  he 
worked  so  well  in  the  one  place  and  so  poorly  in 
the  other,  and  he  gave  this  reply :  "  You  let  me  do 
my  work  my  own  way.  You  do  not  say  'Hurry 
up,  there,  hurry  up'!  I  cannot  hurry — it  makes 
me  sick,  so  I  leave.  But  I  like  to  work  here— 
can  1  come  back?"  This  man  was  not  slow  in  his 
movements,  nor  dull  mentally.  At  the  lodging 
house  he  worked  rapidly  and  required  little  or  no 
supervision.  Some  of  the  time  he  had  five  or  six 
helpers  working  under  his  direction ;  \  yet  today  he 
is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  vagrant  in  spite  of  his 
proved  possibilities  for  usefulness,  largely  because 
he  cannoj  keep  up  with  the  pace  of  modern 
industry.  .That  a  great  many  older  men  drop  out 
for  the  same  reason  long  before  their  years  of  real 
usefulness  are  over,  is  well  known  to  all  students 
of  industrial  problems,  and  we  had  many  such 
cases  among  our  homeless  men  applicants. 

The  occupations  of  60  men  were  not  known. 
Some  of  these  were  applicants  who  were  ill  or  in- 
sane, or  very  old,  and  were  not  questioned  as  to 
their  trades.  But  at  least  a  third  of  them  were 
men  who  mentioned  trades  which  we  proved  by 
investigation  they  had  never  followed  but  whose 
real  trades  we  did  not  discover.  Seventeen  were 


HOMELESS    MEN 

chronic  beggars,  among  whom  it  is  probable  that 
a  number  had  no  work  histories  to  record. 

These  facts  and  others  have  been  taken  into 
account  in  making  up  the  lists  of  the  trades  and 
occupations  of  the  thousand  men,  and  I  have 
endeavored  in  each  instance  when  a  man  had  had 
several  occupations,  to  enter  as  his  chief  one,  that 
which  he  had  followed  during  his  best  and  most 
productive  working  years.  The  only  exceptions  to 
this  rule  have  been  made  in  some  half  dozen  cases 
where  men  had  been  engaged  both  in  a  profession 
and  in  a  business,  or  both  in  a  trade  and  in  a  busi- 
ness, between  which,  in  point  of  the  time  devoted 
to  each,  it  was  difficult  to  make  a  choice.  In  these 
cases  the  professions  and  the  trades  have  been 
listed  and  the  business  ignored. 


138 


CHAPTER  IX 
SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

AlONG  the  industrial  causes  of  vagrancy, 
probably  the  most  potent  one  is  the  sea- 
sonal and  irregular  character  of  employ- 
ment in  a  good  many  trades  and  occupations. 
Such  trades  and  occupations  are  common  to  all 
sections  of  the  country,  but  nowhere  else  are  they 
so  numerous,  nowhere  else  do  they  furnish  em- 
ployment for  such  great  numbers  of  men,  as  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  For  it  is  this  region  which 
every  year  in  the  harvest  fields,  in  the  lumber 
camps,  in  railway  construction,  on  the  lake  boats, 
and  in  many  other  forms  of  seasonal  work  furnishes 
employment  to  thousands  of  unskilled  laborers. 
The  fact  that  so  many  of  these  men  stay,  between 
jobs,  in  the  cities  of  the  Middle  West,  probably 
explains  why  the  vagrancy  problem  is,  in  many 
respects,  more  serious  in  this  section  of  the  country 
than  in  any  other.  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul, 
Kansas  City,  Omaha,  and  St.  Louis,  as  well  as 
Cincinnati  and  Cleveland,  each  have  large  colonies 
of  homeless  men;  but,  as  explained  in  an  earlier 
chapter,  no  city  is  quite  so  popular,  the  year 
around,  with  homeless  men  of  all  types,  as  is 
Chicago. 


HOMELESS    MEN 

One  of  the  questions  which  we  almost  invariably 
asked  the  men  who  applied  to  the  Bureau  for  aid, 
was  "What  was  the  longest  time  you  ever  worked 
at  one  place?"  The  replies  were  most  enlighten- 
ing. When  a  man  was  unable  to  mention  any 
place  where  he  had  worked  for  as  long  as  two  weeks, 
we  knew  our  man  without  much  further  question- 
ing. On  the  other  hand,  this  inquiry  not  infre- 
quently brought  out  the  fact  that  a  man  who  now 
to  all  appearance  was  a  confirmed  vagrant  had 
once  worked  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years  for  a  single 
employer.  I  recall  one  case  of  this  kind  in  which 
we  found  that  an  old  Irishman  who  had  been  more 
or  less  dependent  for  ten  years  had  had  a  record 
of  almost  forty  years'  employment  with  a  single 
firm.  It  was  a  question  well  worth  asking,  but 
we  found  the  men's  statements  in  regard  to  the 
length  of  time  they  had  been  continuously  em- 
ployed had  invariably  to  be  corroborated  by 
employers  or  they  could  not  be  depended  upon. 
Few  of  the  men  failed  to  realize  the  import  of  the 
question,  and  in  answering  it  they  were  often 
tempted  to  overstate  the  actual  time  spent  in 
certain  positions.  Men  would  claim  to  have 
worked  three  years  in  a  place  when  in  fact  the 
time  was  but  three  months;  or  a  number  of 
months,  when  the  term  of  their  employment  had 
really  been  measured  by  weeks  or  days. 

There  are  two  principal  reasons  why  men  who 
are  employed  in  seasonal  trades  tend  to  deteriorate 
into  tramps  and  vagrants.  The  first  is  found  in 

140 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

the  irregular  character  of  the  work  itself  which 
unsettles  habits  of  industry  and  makes  the  men 
unwilling  at  last  to  accept  steady  employment. 
The  second  is  found  in  the  conditions  under  which 
the  men  live  in  the  large  cities  during  their  periods 
of  unemployment  and  the  habits  which  they  form 
at  such  times. 

When  they  work  only  a  part  of  the  year  and  are 
idle  the  remainder,  it  is  surprising  to  see  how  soon 
they  come  to  feel  that  this  is  the  normal  and  best, 
if  not  the  only,  way  to  do.  Not  only  will  they  not  f 
seek  work  at  other  seasons  than  those  in  which 
they  are  in  the  habit  of  working,  but  will  refuse 
it  when  offered.  The  case  of  one  able-bodied 
Irishman  of  forty  may  be  cited  in  point.  This 
man  had  been  employed  in  seasonal  labor  for  a 
number  of  years,  but  heretofore  had  invariably 
saved  enough  of  his  summer  earnings  to  carry 
him  through  the  winter.  This  particular  winter, 
however,  he  had  been  unusually  extravagant,  and 
although  he  admitted  having  had  steady  em- 
ployment on  the  railroads  and  in  the  harvest  fields 
from  the  first  of  April  to  the  middle  of  October,  he 
was  penniless  in  December.  Not  being  of  the 
type  of  men  who  will  beg  when  hard  pressed,  he 
applied  to  us  for  work.  We  referred  him  to 
several  places  where  work  might  perhaps  be  ob- 
tained, but  he  did  not  secure  any.  Every  morning 
for  a  week  he  dropped  in  to  ask  if  we  had  heard 
of  any  employment  for  him,  and  then  spent  the 
remainder  of  the  day  looking  for  it  himself.  One 

141 


HOMELESS    MEN 

morning  when  he  was  growing  almost  desperate, 
he  asked  me  if  I  would  not  dismiss  a  lame  man 
whom  we  employed  for  the  small  amount  of 
janitor  work  required  at  the  office,  and  allow  him 
to  do  it  instead.  Surprised  at  the  request,  I  asked 
him  what  the  lame  man  could  then  do.  "He 
can  go  to  some  institution,"  he  replied  angrily. 
"Everywhere  I  go  I  find  cripples  doing  the  odd 
jobs.  It  is  a  shame!  They  ought  not  to  be 
allowed  to  take  the  bread  out  of  the  mouths  of 
honest  workmen  who  have  both  arms  and  legs. 
There  isn't  work  enough  for  everybody,  so  the 
strong  men  are  the  ones  who  should  have  it." 

I  think  this  man's  attitude  toward  cripples  was 
rather  unusual,  but  I  mention  him  and  it  in  order 
to  contrast  this  conversation  when  he  was  almost 
desperate  for  lack  of  work  and  money,  with  another 
I  had  with  him  some  weeks  later.  It  was  at  the 
" 'height  of  the  ice-cutting  season,  when  our  applica- 
tions from  homeless  men  had  fallen  off  greatly  on 
account  of  the  plentifulness  of  work.  I  met  the 
man  on  the  street.  He  seemed  delighted  at  the 
chance  encounter  and  shook  hands  very  cordially. 
After  the  greeting  was  over,  I  said,  "How  does  it 
happen  that  you  aren't  on  the  ice  fields — surely 
you  know  where  to  find  work  today?" 

"  I  don't  need  any,"  he  replied. 

"Oh,  you  have  a  job,  have  you?    That's  good. 
Where  is  it?" 

"No,  I  mean  I've  got  money.     I  don't  need  to 
work  any  more." 

142 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

"Well,  you  are  lucky.  Is  it  a  large  sum?  Did 
some  relative  leave  it  to  you?  What  are  you  going 
to  do  with  it?  Tell  me  all  about  it." 

"Relative!  No,  I  ain't  that  lucky.  You  don't 
understand.  I  mean  that  I've  got  money  that 
I  worked  for.  I  got  a  job  that  last  day  I  was 
at  the  charity  office  and  I  worked  nearly  two 
months.  Just  stopped  it  here  last  Saturday.  It 
was  good  pay  and  I've  got  a-plenty  of  it  now. 
That's  why  I  ain't  working  on  the  ice.  I  don't 
need  to."  He  jingled  the  coins  in  his  pockets  as 
he  spoke. 

"  But  surely  the  amount  you  saved  from  less 
than  two  months'  work  will  not  last  you  long. 
Why  don't  you  take  the  ice  work  now  when  you 
can  get  it.  You  will  be  out  of  money  again  soon, 
and  then  what  will  you  do?" 

"Oh,  the  summer  work  will  be  opening  up  by 
that  time  and  I'll  be  all  right.  I  won't  have  to 
come  to  you  folks  again.  I'll  be  careful  to  save 
enough  to  carry  me  over  next  year.  I  never  got 
caught  that  way  before." 

I  urged  him  further  to  take  the  ice  work,  on  the 
ground  that  he  could  save  a  little  money  if  he  did 
so. 

"What  should  I  save  for?"  was  his  reply.  "I 
don't  need  to.  I've  no  one  but  myself  to  look 
after.  If  I  was  a  married  man  and  had  children, 
it  would  be  different.  A  man  with  a  family  ought 
to  work  all  the  year  'round." 

"  But  you  may  get  sick,  and  some  day  you  will 
143 


HOMELESS    MEN 

grow  old.     How  will  you  live  then  if  you  haven't 
saved?" 

He  laughed  good  humoredly. 

"Oh,  well,  I'm  young  enough  yet.  I  ain't 
worrying  about  my  old  age,  and  I  never  was  sick  a 
day  in  my  life.  So  you  see  there  really  ain't  any 
need  for  my  going  on  the  ice  this  winter.  I  t's  cold, 
hard  work,  and  I  never  liked  it,  though  I've  done 
it  many  a  winter  when  I  was  hard  up." 

Then,  as  I  still  seemed  unconvinced  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  his  idling,  he  added  his  final  argument 
against  going  to  work: 

"I'm  real  sorry  to  disappoint  you,  Miss,  since  / 
you  seem  so  set  on  the  idea  of  me  working  on  the 
ice,  but  to  tell  the  truth  I  really  wouldn't  think  it 
was  right  to  do  it.  I'd  just  be  taking  the  work 
away  from  some  poor  fellow  who  needs  it,  and  it 
wouldn't  be  right  for  a  man  to  do  that  when  he  has 
plenty  of  money  in  his  pocket.'' 

Arguments  similar  to  the  ones  quoted  were  so 
frequently  advanced  by  men  whom  I  urged  to  take 
steady  employment  in  order  to  save  money  for 
their  future,  that  I  believe  this  story  fairly  repre- 
sents the  philosophy  of  a  great  many  seasonal 
workers.  They  live  from  day  to  day,  or  rather 
from  one  job  to  the  next.  After  a  few  years  at 
seasonal  employment  they  reach  a  point  where  they 
will  not  work  continuously,  even  if  they  could. 
They  really  do  not  believe  in  doing  so,  nor  will 
many  of  them  admit  any  necessity  for  saving  more 
than  enough  to  carry  them  from  one  season  to  the 

144 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

next.  No  matter  how  much  money  they  mii;ht 
receive  for  their  labor  the  majority  of  the  men 
would  not  save  and  would  be  found  no  better 
able  to  support  themselves  in  times  of  adversity, 
illness,  or  old  age  than  they  are  now. 

In  the  Mississippi  Valley  region  in  normal  years, 
work  for  unskilled  men  is  plentiful  from  the  last 
of  March  till  the  middle  of  November,  and  the 
great  majority  of  seasonal  laborers  are  employed 
during  most  of  that  time.  Lumber-camp  work  and 
ice  cutting  are  winter  trades  which  give  additional 
employment  to  thousands  of  men  during  Decem- 
ber, January,  and  February.  Why  is  it,  then,  that 
even  in  normal  years  hundreds  of  men  may  each 
winter  be  found  penniless,  and  seeking  employ- 
ment or  charitable  aid  in  the  large  cities  of  the 
country?  I  believe  that  the  'answer  to  these 
questions  will  be  found  by  studying  the  conditions 
under  which  the  men  live  in  the  cheap  lodging 
houses  of  the  cities  and  their  habits  of  life  during 
their  periods  of  unemployment. 

From  the  men  themselves,  and  also  through 
daily  co-operation  with  physicians,  police  officers, 
mission  workers,  lodging  house  keepers,  and  others 
who  knew  homeless  men  and  the  district  well,  we 
at  the  Bureau  office  gradually  acquired  a  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  conditions  in  the  lodging 
houses  and  of  the  habits  of  their  residents. 

When  the  summer  work  is  over  the  men,  as  has 
already  been  stated,  flock  in  great  numbers  into 
the  cities  and  crowd  into  the  cheap  lodging  houses. 

145 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Having  had  but  little  need  of  money  while  at  their 
jobs  many  have  requested  their  employers  to  hold 
back  their  wages  until  the  end  of  the  season,  when 
they  come  to  the  city  with  from  one  to  three  or 
four  months'  earnings  in  hand,  a  fact  which  in  itself 
accounts  for  the  prompt  downfall  of  a  number  of 
them.*  It  is  the  custom  of  many,  however,  to  pay 
the  winter's  room  rent  in  advance,  at  a  favorite 
lodging  house,  in  order  that  they  may,  in  any  event, 
be  certain  of  shelter,  and  then  to  deposit  the  bal- 
ance of  their  money  either  with  the  clerk  of  the 
lodging  house,  or  in  a  savings  bank.  If  in  the 
latter,  the  bank  book  is  generally  turned  over  to 
the  clerk  of  the  house  to  be  locked  in  the  office 
safe,  in  some  cases  with  the  distinct  understand- 
ing that  it  shall  not  be  given  to  its  owner  if  he  de- 
mands it  when  drunk.  During  the  weeks  which 
follow,  the  majority  of  the  men  live  in  complete 
idleness  upon  the  money  they  have  saved.  How 
far  it  carries  them  into  the  winter  depends  of  course 
upon  the  character  and  habits  of  the  individual 
men  themselves. 

Long  periods  of  idleness  usually  prove  more  or 
less  demoralizing  to  workmen  of  any  type,  even 
when  they  spend  them  in  comfortable  homes  with 
the  normal  restraining  influences  exerted  by  wife 
and  children,  neighbors  and  friends.  .When,  how- 
ever, men  are  homeless  and  are  massed  in  great 

*  Robbery  at  night  in  the  lodging  houses  accounts  for  the  loss  of 
the  savings  of  a  few  of  the  men,  while  in  some  cases  their  money  is 
taken  from  them  in  saloons  or  on  the  street  while  they  are  under  the 
'influence  of  liquor.  See  also  page  318. 

146 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

numbers  in  city  lodging  houses  where  there  are 
pnu-nVally  no  restraining  and  refining  influences; 
where,  in  sharing  a  common  living  room  they  must 
of  necessity  associate  with  men  who  have  long 
since  become  chronic  tramps,  confirmed  beggars, 
or  clever  impostors,  and  where,  moreover,  public 
opinion  as  expressed  by  the  majority  of  the  men 
favors,  rather  than  disapproves  of  drink,  gambling, 
licentiousness,  and  other  forms  of  vice,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  many  deteriorate  rapidly  and  that 
such  self-respect  and  decency  as  they  may  in  the 
beginning  have  possessed  is  soon  diminished  or 
destroyed.  Men  who  have  higher  standards  of 
conduct,  more  resources  within  themselves  and 
greater  strength  of  character  than  the  average  un- 
skilled laborer  possesses,  might  find  it  difficult  to 
withstand  the  influences  of  such  an  environment 
combined  with  complete  idleness  and  the  knowledge 
that  they  are  not  responsible  for  the  welfare  of  any 
human  being  but  themselves.  The  wonder  perhaps 
is  not  that  so  many  plunge  into  debauches  and 
indulgences  of  all  sorts  which  last  until  their  money 
is  exhausted  but  rather  that  upon  the  whole  so 
few  of  them  do  so. 

When  at  the  end  of  a  few  days,  weeks,  or  months, 
as  the  case  may  be,  the  homeless  laborer  finds  his 
money  exhausted,  two  courses  are  open  to  him. 
He  can  work  or  he  can  beg.  Except  during  the 
short  ice-cutting  season,  work  for  laborers  is  not 
plentiful  during  the  winter  months,  and  it  usually 
becomes  more  and  more  scarce  as  the  season 

147 


HOMELESS    MEN 

advances.*  Most  of  these  men,  therefore,  could 
not,  if  they  would,  find  steady  employment,  and 
many  of  them,  after  weeks  of  idleness  and  dissipa- 
tion, are  so  run  down  physically  that  they  feel 
unequal  to  any  sort  of  continuous  hard  labor,  and 
do  not  seek  it.  "Odd  jobs"  or  casual  labor  is 
the  form  of  employment  they  seek,  and  such  work 
accepted  at  a  time  like  this  has  proved  to  be  the 
right-about-face  towards  vagrancy  of  many  a 
workingman  in  the  cheap  lodging  houses. 

For  working  at  odd  jobs  means  putting  in  coal, 
sawing  wood,  scrubbing  front  steps,  shoveling 
snow,  and  doing  other  similar  short-lived  tasks 
about  private  homes  to  secure  enough  of  which  to 
enable  him  to  support  himself  a  man  must  go  from 
door  to  door  asking  for  work.  It  is  this  last 
necessity  which  is  the  undoing  of  so  many  of  the 
men  who  resort  to  casual  labor,  for  even  though 
he  may  ask  only  for  work  the  man  himself  knows 
that  most  men  who  go  from  door  to  door  are 
beggars  and  that  when  the  householder  gives  him 
employment  he  usually  rates  him  only  as  a  rather 
decent  sort  of  mendicant.  He  realizes  too  that 
among  better  grade  workmen  he  has  to  a  certain 
extent  lost  caste  by  resorting  to  employment  of 
this  sort,  and  that  in  the  lodging  houses  the  true 
vagrants  refer  to  him  disrespectfully  as  a  "Molly" 
and  despise  him  for  working  at  all.  When  he  is 

f     *  December,  January,  February,  and  March  were  the  only  months 

in  the  year  when  able-bodied  and  unemployed  men,  either  married  or 

-     single,  applied  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities  in  any  considerable  numbers. 

148 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

given  a  job  he  is  often  "for  charity"  paid  more 
than  he  knows  his  work  is  worth  and  whether  he 
asks  for  it  or  not  he  is  usually  given  a  meal  besides. 
There  are  even  a  number  of  housewives  who  take 
pride  in  the  fact  that  when  a  man  appeals  to  them 
for  work,  "showing  that  he  has  the  right  spirit," 
they  never  fail  to  offer  him  a  meal  instead  if  they 
have  no  work  for  him  to  do.  When  the  "unthink- 
ing public"  is  thus  doing  what  it  can  to  break  down 
the  self-respect  of  casual  laborers,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  men  themselves  soon  learn  to  ask  for  the 
food  first  and  that  in  the  end  they  cease  to  ask 
for  work  at  all. ; 

There  are  many  other  men  besides  those  engaged  1 
in  seasonal  trades  who  at  times,  and  for  mere  j 
industrial   stop-gaps   until    better   work   can    be; 
secured,  depend  upon  casual  labor  as  a  means  of! 
livelihood.     Men  of  all  grades  of  ability  and  skill 
among   the   thousand   under   consideration    took 
such  work  when  unable  to  find  employment  in  their 
usual  occupations,  and  it  would  be  most  unfair  to 
imply  that  any  large  proportion  of  them  became 
beggars  in  consequence.     But  it  is  nevertheless 
also  demonstrated   by   this   study  that   men,  of  • 
whatever  original  strength  of  character,  who  for 
several   consecutive   years    depend    upon    casual 
labor  and  at  the  same  time  continue  to  live  in  the 
cheap  lodging  houses,  do  in  the  end  almost  invari- 
ably become  confirmed  vagrants. 

Just  as  seasonal  laborers  gradually  come  to  feel 
that  they  cannot  work  the  year  around,  so  casual 

149 


HOMELESS   MEN 

laborers  become  so  used  to  living  from  hand  to 
mouth  that  many  of  them  will  refuse  better  work 
when  it  is  offered.  The  excuse  which  they  oftenest 
give  is  that  they  have  not  money  enough  to  live 
upon  until  pay  day;  but  that  this  is  only  an  excuse 
is  evident  in  part  from  the  fact  that  men  who  are 
in  earnest  about  wishing  to  secure  steady  employ- 
ment are  very  rarely  withheld  from  taking  it  on 
this  account.  In  the  neighborhood  of  most  shops 
and  factories  there  are  boarding  houses  whose  keep- 
ers will  trust  men  who  are  employed  in  them  es- 
pecially if  the  men  will  give  orders  upon  their  wages, 
or  make  small  advance  payments  as  earnests  of 
good  faith.  A  fellow  workman  will  often  loan  a 
man  enough  to  tide  him  over  until  pay  day.  When 
we  were  able  to  offer  a  man  a  permanent  position 
we  not  infrequently  at  the  same  time  gave  him  a 
day's  temporary  employment  in  order  that  he  might 
earn  enough  to  pay  a  dollar  in  advance  on  account 
to  his  new  landlady.  In  Chicago  and  New  York 
men  who  have  work  are  permitted  to  live  at  the 
municipal  lodging  houses  until  they  have  earned 
enough  to  pay  their  board  elsewhere.  There  are 
many  ways  in  which  men  who  really  desire  steady 
work  can  tide  themselves  through  until  pay  day. 
The  fact  is,  that  men  in  whom  the  casual  labor 
habit  is  confirmed  do  not  care  to  take  steady 
work  and  will  not  do  so  even  when  provision  for 
food  and  lodging  is  included  with  offers  of  better 
employment.  We  proved  this  again  and  again  at 
the  district  office  by  securing  positions  as  porters 

150 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

in  institutions  or  hospitals,  or  as  housemen  in 
private  homes,  for  casual  laborers  who  seemed  to 
show  some  fitness  for  such  work.  Very  rarely 
were  they  willing  to  take  them  and  when  they  did 
so  it  was  often  only  to  leave  them  within  a  week 
or  two. 

The  managers  of  a  certain  foundry  in  one  of  the 
suburbs  of  Chicago  agreed  for  several  years  to  give 
employment  to  any  homeless  men  we  might  send 
to  them.  The  pay  to  unskilled  men  was  to  be 
$1.50  a  day,  and  by  giving  orders  on  their  wages 
they  could  secure  board  and  room  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  foundry  without  any  advance  payment. 
We  tried  to  send  only  men  who  claimed  to  want 
steady  work  and  who  were  able-bodied  and  not  in 
the  habit  of  drinking  to  excess.  The  men  sent 
were  therefore  a  little  above  the  average  of  home- 
less men  applicants.  I  am  not  able  to  give  exact 
figures  at  this  date  but  I  well  recall  our  disappoint- 
ment in  learning  from  the  company  as  we  did  from 
time  to  time,  how  very  small  a  percentage  of  the 
men  we  sent  to  the  works  ever  went  at  all  and  how 
very  few  of  those  who  went  stayed  for  more  than 
one  week.  Our  experience  in  this  respect  could 
probably  be  duplicated  by  scores  of  social  workers 
in  other  cities,  for  it  has  frequently  been  proved 
that  merely  finding  employment  for  homeless  men 
will  not  solve  their  problems.  Lack  of  employ- 
ment with  a  very  large  proportion  of  them  is  only 
a  symptom,  and  treating  the  symptom  will  not 
cure  the  disease. 


HOMELESS   MEN 

A  long  list  of  cases  of  men  who  begged  for  work, 
seemed  really  to  want  it,  were  sent  to  good  posi- 
tions, did  satisfactory  work  in  the  positions  but 
soon  left  them  of  their  own  accord,  might  readily 
be  cited.  We  found  a  position  as  houseman  and 
gardener  for  one  man.  His  employer  became 
greatly  attached  to  him,  but  at  the  end  of  six 
months  he  left  without  giving  any  reason.  An- 
other man  we  placed  as  an  orderly  in  a  hospital. 
He  proved  very  satisfactory  in  the  work  and  was 
himself  apparently  satisfied  with  the  position  and 
pay,  but  in  two  months  he  left  without  saying 
why.  A  position  as  porter  in  a  club  house  was 
given  to  another  man;  he  held  it  three  months. 
One  as  janitor  was  given  to  another;  he  held  it 
five  months.  A  place  in  the  shipping  department 
in  a  dry  goods  house  was  given  to  a  man  who  had 
been  seeking  work  for  several  months;  he  left  in 
six  weeks.  Another  man  who  was  almost  starving 
when  he  applied  to  us  was  given  a  position  as  floor- 
walker or  usher  in  a  dry  goods  store;  he  left  it  in 
eight  weeks.  I  have  not  been  able  to  follow  the 
later  records  of  all  these  men  but  the  last  named  is 
today  still  in  the  habit  of  making  frequent  changes 
of  position  and  locality,  and  has  several  times 
within  the  past  six  years  had  to  apply  to  relatives 
or  to  charity  for  help.  Many  of  the  men  for  whom 
we  found  employment  held  the  places  for  shorter 
periods  than  the  ones  mentioned;  very  few  held 
them  for  longer;  and  in  the  class  to  which  I  am 
now  referring  all  left  their  positions  entirely  of 

152 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR     , 

their  own  accord.  We  found  too  upon  investiga- 
tion that  a  number  of  the  homeless  men  who  were 
seeking  work  in  Chicago  and  who  were  finally 
forced  to  apply  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities  for  aid, 
had  left  excellent  positions  in  other  cities  for  no 
apparent  reasons. 

So  long  as  this  is  true  it  is  quite  evident  that 
the  men  are  not  really  reinstated  industrially  or 
socially  when  we  merely  find  them  employment. 
We  must  know  that  they  are  willing  to  hold 
as  well  as  to  take  the  positions  offered,  and  it  is  a 
question  whether  helping  vagrant  workmen  to 
secure  employment  does  not  in  some  cases  do  them 
actual  harm  rather  than  good,  since  the  compara- 
tive ease  with  which  they  can  secure  work  when 
they  again  decide  they  wish  to  take  it,  is  one  of  the 
things  which  tends  to  confirm  them  in  their  habits 
of  vagrancy. 

The  underlying,  rather  than  the  immediate 
causes  of  unemployment  must  be  sought  out  if  a 
man  is  to  be  really  helped,  and  to  discover  these 
underlying  causes  it  will  be  necessary  for  social 
workers  who  deal  with  homeless  men  to  make  just 
as  careful  investigations  when  they  ask  for  work 
as  when  they  ask  for  food  or  money.  The  fact 
that  they  ask  for  the  former  instead  of  the  lat- 
ter may  signify  little  or  nothing.  Among  the 
confirmed  beggars  considered  in  the  following  chap- 
ter, eight  asked  only  for  work  when  they  appealed 
to  the  Bureau,  but  of  the  eight,  two  were  too  old 
and  feeble  to  work  at  all,  one  was  addicted  to  the 

153 


HOMELESS   MEN 

drug  habit,  one  was  insane,  another  was  crippled 
and  very  dull  mentally,  still  another  was  syphilitic 
and  almost  blind,  while  of  the  remaining  two  one 
had  a  bad  record  for  stealing  and  the  last  man  was 
untrained  and  lazy  and  had  just  been  discharged 
from  the  House  of  Correction  after  serving  his  third 
term  for  vagrancy.  All  of  the  eight  were  out  of 
work  chiefly  because  they  were  unemployable. 

Under  the  spur  of  necessity,  or  when  as  a  matter 
of  policy  he  thinks  it  best  to  do  so,  almost  any 
vagrant  who  is  physically  able  will  work — for  a 
while — but  the  question  will  always  be  how  to 
keep  him  at  work.  We  had  a  striking  example  of 
the  importance  of  investigation  in,  work  applica- 
tions in  the  case  of  a  very  decent-looking  young 
fellow  who  came  to  the  office  one  day  and  asked 
if  we  could  send  him  to  a  "steady  job."  He  said 
that  he  had  been  living  by  means  of  casual  labor 
for  several  years  but  was  tired  of  such  an  existence 
and  wished  to  get  back  into  the  ranks  of  real 
workmen.  He  could  give  no  references,  claiming 
that  no  one  that  he  had  worked  for  would  recall 
him.  There  seemed  to  be  little  that  we  could  look 
up  with  regard  to  him,  and  as  he  was  apparently 
anxious  to  find  work  at  once,  we  sent  him  without 
investigation  to  the  foundry  above  mentioned. 
A  line  from  the  manager  the  next  day  notified  us 
that  he  had  been  employed  and  was  then  at  work. 
In  one  week  he  left. 

From  a  lodging  house  man  whom  we  knew  well 
and  whose  statements  could  be  trusted,  we  later 


SEASONAL  AND  CASUAL  LABOR 

learned  why.  He  said  that  this  man  had  asked 
us  for  employment  only  because  the  police  had 
suspected  him  of  complicity  in  some  recent 
robberies  and  were  watching  him  closely.  The 
man  was  not  a  thief  but  he  was  and  had  been  from 
his  boyhood  a  confirmed  beggar.  Knowing  that 
the  police  would  arrest  him  on  the  slightest  excuse 
he  had  not  dared  to  ply  his  usual  trade.  He  might 
have  sought  casual  employment  but  it  was  irregu- 
lar and  did  not  pay  well  and  he  wished  to  earn 
enough  to  get  away  from  the  city  at  once.  More- 
over, if  he  took  steady  work  at  a  foundry  the  police 
who  had  really  been  able  to  prove  nothing  against 
him  would  be  more  likely  to  be  thrown  off  their 
guard  and  be  convinced  that  he  was  a  steady  work- 
man and  not  the  crook  they  suspected  him  of  being. 
These  were  the  real  reasons  why  he  took  the  work 
and  why  later  he  left  it.  Our  timely  assistance, 
rendered  without  investigation,  had  in  fact  only 
aided  him  to  continue  in  the  very  life  of  vagrancy 
from  which  we  had  vainly  hoped  that  we  were 
withdrawing  him. 


155 


CHAPTER  X 
CHRONIC  BEGGARS 

UNDER  the  denomination  of  chronic  beggars 
I  have  endeavored  to  include  all  the  men, 
and  only  those,  who  were  found  upon  in- 
vestigation to  be  deriving  practically  their  entire 
support  from  the  general  public  by  begging  and 
imposture.'.  Other  men  in  the  thousand  begged 
in^imes  of  unusual  stress;  some  few,  especially 
among  the  old  or  the  crippled,  begged  frequently 
but  only  for  a  part  of  their  support,  continuing 
to  earn  the  remainder  by  their  own  efforts.  Some 
others,  who  did  not  beg  from  the  public  direct, 
asked  aid  more  or  less  frequently  from  charity 
societies,  while  still  others  lived  mainly,  or  entirely, 
upon  the  bounty  of  relatives.  Since,  therefore, 
all  of  the  thousand  applied  for  some  form  of 
charitable'aid  at  sometime  in  their  careers,  it  has 
seemed  best  to  limit  the  study  of  the  beggars  in 
the  group  to  the  1 35  men  in  whom  the  habit  of 
street  or  house-to-house  begging  was  well  es- 
tablished before  the  date  of  their  first  application 
to  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  or  in  whom  it  became 
so  soon  afterwards.* 
At  first  glance,  it  may  appear  that  the  differences 

*  For  number  and  kinds  of  applications  of  the  1000  homeless  men 
and  the  135  chronic  beggars,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  21,  p.  299. 

.56 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

between  these  particular  men  and  the  others  are 
slight,  and  of  decree  rather  than  of  kind,  and  this 
is  in  some  cases  true.  However,  not  only  were 
there  some  men  in  the  group  who  were  not  beggars 
in  any  sense  of  the  word,  but  we  found  in  dealing 
with  applicants  of  all  sorts  that  so  long  as  a  man 
still  made  an  effort  to  earn  even  a  part  of  his  own 
support,  or  so  long  as  he  still  had  too  much  pride 
to  ask  aid  of  strangers,  a  foundation  of  self-respect 
remained  upon  which  to  base  a  hope  and  an  effort 
for  his  complete  restoration  to  independence,  i  But 
public  begging  on  the  streets  and  from  door  to  door 
seems  to  have  so  degrading  an  effect  upon  charac- 
ter that  only  in  rare  instances  can  a  man  who  has 
indulged  in  it  for  any  length  of  time  be  reclaimed 
and  brought  back  to  normal  social  relations.  . 
This  appears  to  be  true  whether  the  man  first 
resorts  to  such  begging  from  choice  or  from  what 
he  considers,  and  what  really  may,  at  the  moment, 
have  been  necessity. 

Beggars  have  long  been  popularly  supposed  to 
be  of  only  two  types,  men  who  beg  from  "choice" 
and  are  "unworthy,"  and  men  who  beg  from 
"necessity"  and  are  "worthy."  That  a  thousand 
cumulative  influences  of  heredity,  environment, 
and  training  may  have  led  to  the  "choice"  on  the 
part  of  the  "unworthy"  man,  and  that  thriftless- 
ness,  self-indulgence  and  vice  may  at  bottom  have 
been'responsible"for  the  misfortunes  of  the  so-called 
"worthy"  man,  are  facts  which  have  often  neither 
been  realized  nor  taken  into  consideration. 


HOMELESS    MEN 

The  words  necessity  and  choice  are  relative  and 
variable  in  their  meanings.  The  necessity  of  a 
man  who  is  physically  weak  or  mentally  dull  would 
not  be  the  necessity  of  a  strong  man,  while  the 
choice  of  a  life  of  vagrancy  by  one  whose  parents 
were  paupers  and  who  is  himself  uneducated  and 
untrained,  cannot  fairly  be  compared  with  a 
similar  choice  upon  the  part  of  a  man  who,  well- 
born and  reared,  had  been  given  every  incentive 
and  opportunity  for  living  an  upright  and  useful 
life.  Compare,  for  example,  the  following  cases: 

A  lad  who  was  a  member  of  a  tramp  family  be- 
came paralyzed  when  five  years  old.  Both  of 
his  parents  begged  and  they  used  his  pitiful  con- 
dition as  part  of  their  stock  in  trade.  Very  early 
in  life  he  himself  was  taught  to  beg  and  to  exhibit 
his  shrivelled  leg  to  compel  pity.  He  was  never 
sent  to  school,  never  trained  for  any  business  but 
begging.  This  lad  had  an  unusually  bright  mind, 
as  well  as  a  sunny  disposition  and  other  attributes 
which,  if  he  could  have  received  different  training, 
might  have  assured  him  an  honorable  and  useful 
position  in  life  in  spite  of  his  physical  handicap. 
But  at  seventeen,  his  age  when  he  first  came  to 
the  attention  of  the  Bureau,  he  was,  and  today  at 
the  age  of  thirty-three  he  still  is,  a  most  accom- 
plished and  successful  beggar,  and  one  who  refuses 
to  consider  any  other  means  of  securing  a  living 
although  he  has  several  times  been  offered  oppor- 
tunities to  do  so. 

The  second  man,  an  ex-minister,  was  well  born, 

158 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

carefully  reared  and  educated,  and  had  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  held  the  respect  of  the  congregations 
which  he  served,  but  he  entered  upon  a  disgrace- 
ful career  of  vice  and  imposture  when  his  children 
were  almost  grown.  There  may  have  been,  in 
fact  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  there  were, 
objective  as  well  as  subjective  reasons  for  this 
man's  degeneration.  They  are  not,  however, 
readily  discoverable,  and  few  would  question  the 
conclusion  that  in  any  case  his  moral  responsi- 
bility for  his  mode  of  life  when  he  became  a 
chronic  impostor  and  beggar  at  forty,  was  im- 
measurably greater  than  that  of  the  crippled 
pauper  who  was  taught  to  beg  at  five  or  six. 

This  particular  man  was  in  sound  health,  but  we 
found  in  a  number  of  other  cases  where  men  of 
good  family  "chose"  to  be  mendicants,  that 
inherited  tendencies  toward  degeneration  and  the 
possession  of  weak  bodies  accounted  at  least  in 
part  for  their  profligacy.  For  example:  A  young 
fellow  of  twenty-seven  came  into  the  office  one 
afternoon  and  spread  out  on  the  desk  before  me  a 
letter  of  recommendation  which  had  been  refolded 
so  many  times  that  it  was  worn  to  tatters.  Hastily 
fitting  the  parts  together  he  read  it  with  great 
rapidity,  apparently  knowing  it  by  heart,  and  then 
produced  an  affidavit  from  a  notary  in  St.  Paul 
testifying  that  the  letter  was  genuine.  Having 
done  this,  he  asked  for  money  with  which  to 
purchase  a  ticket  to  his  home  in  the  East.  He 
had  been  referred  to  the  office  by  an  Episcopal 

159 


HOMELESS   MEN 

clergyman  and  we  found  upon  investigation  that 
he  had  begged  of  almost  every  clergyman  of  that 
denomination  in  Chicago.  He  had  also  ap- 
proached a  number  of  prominent  laymen.  From 
these  sources  he  had  already  received  two  railroad 
tickets  and  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  Fur- 
ther investigation  disclosed  a  very  black  record  of 
begging,  imposture,  dishonesty,  vice,  and  the  use  of 
drugs.  But  on  going  somewhat  deeper  into  the 
case  we  learned  that  the  youth's  father,  a  man  of 
means  and  of  good  family,  had  been  a  morphine 
eater  and  had  died  from  the  effects  of  the  drug 
when  his  son  was  a  baby,  and  that  his  mother, 
although  long  since  recovered,  was  at  the  time  of 
the  boy's  birth  "a  physical  and  mental  wreck" 
because  of  the  trouble  she  was  having  with  her 
husband.  The  boy  had  been  a  weakling  from 
birth  and  had  taken  to  the  use  of  morphine  when 
in  his  teens. 

In  several  other  similar  cases  we  traced  histories 
of  frail  health  and  moral  perversion  back  to  the 
infancies  of  the  men. 

If,  for  the  reasons  indicated,  it  is  difficult  to 
decide  how  far  men  may  be  held  personally  respon- 
sible for  their  choice  of  mendicancy,  it  is  at  least 
equally  hard  to  say  what  shall  constitute  the 
necessity  under  which  they  may  be  excused  for 
begging.  There  are  persons  who  believe  that  any 
man  who  is  physically  handicapped  has  a  legiti- 
mate excuse  for  begging.  Others  feel  that  the 
amount  of  the  handicap  should  decide  the  ques- 

160 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

tion.  Both  classes  overlook  the  fact  that  while  a 
man  may  be  necessarily  dependent  because  of  a 
handicap,  he  need  not  therefore  necessarily  beg. 
As  was  shown  in  earlier  chapters,  a  number  of 
crippled  men  begged  who  had  resources  which 
made  their  doing  so  wholly  unnecessary.  There 
are  other  persons  who  hold  that  no  man  ever  begs 
from  necessity  since  the  taxes  of  the  people  pay 
for  a  poorhouse  where  any  one  who  has  neither 
friends  nor  money  will  receive  care  if  he  asks  for 
it.  These  persons  perhaps  do  not  know  that  in 
Chicago  at  least — and  the  same  rule  holds  in  many 
other  communities — indigent  strangers  are  not 
eligible  for  public  aid  until  they  have  lived  six 
months  in  the  county  and  have  established  "legal 
residence." 

The  number  of  such  strangers,  however,  most 
likely  is  not  so  large  but  that  the  private  charities 
of  the  city  could  readily  furnish  the  aid  they  need 
if  they  would  apply  to  these  organizations  instead 
of  begging.  And  while  one  can  imagine  circum- 
stances where  a  stranger  might  possibly  be  forced 
to  beg,  if  he  needed  instant  help,  it  is  certainly  true 
that  generally  speaking  no  man  begs  on  the  streets 
of  Chicago  from  objective  necessity  while  the  poor- 
house  stands  ready  to  receive  him,  or  private  char- 
ity has  not  yet  shown  itself  unable  or  unwilling  to 
assist  him. 

Subjective  "necessity,"  however,  accounts  for 
the  begging  of  a  number  of  men,  for  to  many,  life 
in  a  poorhouse  would  mean  the  endurance  of 
ii  161 


HOMELESS   MEN 

mental  suffering  far  worse  than  the  disgrace  of 
begging.  Such  a  one  was  a  certain  refined  old 
blind  man  whom  Chicagoans  will  recall  as  having 
begged  for  a  number  of  years  at  the  corner  of 
Twelfth  Street  and  Wabash  Avenue  and  who  is 
included  among  the  beggars  listed  in  this  chapter. 
From  his  own  point  of  view  at  least  this  man 
unquestionably  begged  solely  from  necessity.  He 
had  no  relatives  or  friends  able  to  help  him,  was 
totally  blind,  and  being  past  seventy  was  not 
eligible  for  admission  to  the  state's  school  nor 
to  any  home  for  the  blind.  Twice,  on  the  advice 
of  different  persons,  he  went  out  to  the  poorhouse  at 
Dunning  and  tried  to  accustom  himself  to  the  hard 
conditions  there  and  to  the  enforced  association 
with  the  degraded  and  diseased  wrecks  of  men 
about  him.  But  everything  within  him  shrank 
from  the  life,  and  feeling  that  he  could  not  endure 
it  he  returned  to  his  begging  stand  where  business 
men  said  "Good  morning"  as  they  dropped  change 
into  his  cup  and  where  kind  hearted  women 
occasionally  sympathized  and  chatted  with  him. 
He  begged,  but  no  one  who  knew  him  could 
believe  that  he  did  so  from  a  true  choice,  any 
more  than  it  was  from  choice  that  he  finally 
died  after  all  in  the  dreaded  poorhouse.  He  was 
never  a  willing  dependent,  and  if  he  could  have 
been  pensioned  or  cared  for  in  some  way  that 
would  have  spared  him  the  necessity  of  begging 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  abandoned  the  habit.* 

*  See  Chapter  VI  I,  p.  112.     Homeless  Old  Men. 
162 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

But  shall  we,  on  the  score  of  subjective  necessity, 
excuse  the  mendicancy  of  another  blind  old  man 
of  seventy-three  who  persisted  in  begging  and 
tramping  about  the  country,  although  he  had  both 
a  son  and  a  daughter  willing  and  able  to  care  for 
him,  who  felt  deeply  disgraced  by  their  father's 
vagrant  habits?  It  may  appear  that  this  man 
begged  by  deliberate  choice  and  should  have  been 
made  to  feel  the  force  of  the  law  if  he  continued 
his  mendicancy,  but  in  spite  of  the  apparent 
differences  between  them,  this  beggar  was  in 
fact  no  more  truly  parasitic  by  nature  than  the 
one  just  described.  He  was  a  simple,  kindly, 
somewhat  childish  old  man,  against  whom  the 
most  serious  moral  delinquencies  which  could  in 
fairness  be  charged  were  that  he  had  a  very 
natural  desire  to  travel  about  the  world  after 
having  spent  a  lifetime  in  a  single  county,  and 
that  a  harmless  vanity  and  love  of  attention  led 
him  to  crave  and  to  seek  the  interest  which  cen- 
tered upon  him  whenever,  white-headed,  penniless, 
and  blind,  he  appeared  in  a  new  community  and 
asked  aid  to  reach  another.  An  inordinate  desire 
for  sympathy  and  attention  seemed  to  be  the  only 
reason  for  the  begging  habits  of  several  other  men 
of  the  thousand  who  apparently  begged  from 
"necessity." 

The  psychology  of  begging  is  subtle  and  com- 
plex, and  is  as  yet  but  little  understood  even  by 
persons  who  come  into  the  closest  and  most 
frequent  touch  with  mendicants,  but  it  is  probable 


HOMELESS   MEN 


TABLE  IX.— GENERAL  DATA  CONCERNING  135  CHRONIC 

BEGGARS 
A.    AGES,  BY  GROUPS 

12  to  19 9 

20  to  29 33 

301039 25 

401049 27 

50  to  59 20 

60  to  69 14 

70  to  79 5 

86  and  94 2          Total 135 


B.    CONJUGAL  CONDITION 

Single 101 

Married 2 

Widowed 22 

Divorced i 

Separated 7 

Not  known  .  .  2 


Total 


'35 


C.    NATIVITY 

American  (including  Negro)  68 

German 14 

English 14 

Irish 15 

Canadian 6 

Scandinavian 4 

Italian 3 

Other 4 

Not  known 7 

Total 135 


D.     PREVIOUS  OCCUPATIONS 

Professional  men 1 1 

College  students 2 

Skilled  workers 25 

Partly  skilled 23 

Unskilled 38 

No  work  record 19 

Not  known 17 


Total 


135 


that  few  begin  to  beg  by  definite  choice,  and 
equally  few,  if  any,  in  America,  have  become 
chronic  beggars  solely  because  of  compelling, 
objective  necessity. 

In  considering  the  135  chronic  beggars  here 
listed  no  effort  has  been  made  to  classify  them  by 
causes  of  mendicancy.  Some  facts  about  the 
group  as  a  whole  are  presented  briefly,  and  in  the 
following  pages  a  few  common  types  of  beggars, 
classified  according  to  their  marked  characteristics 
and  their  attitude  toward  society,  are  described 
and  discussed. 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

The  men  have  been  divided  into  four  classes  as 
follows: 

CLASS    I.  Anti-social  men  who  consider  society 

their  prey 48 

CLASS  II.  Beggars  who  have  drifted  into  the  habit  44 
CLASS  I II.  Beggars  with  personal  and  social  handi- 
caps         ii 

CLASS  IV.  Accidental  Beggars 18 

Miscellaneous 6 

Men  too  little  known  to  classify       ....  8 

Total 135 

There  were  eight  college  men  among  the  135, 
and  103  who  had  had  a  common  school  educa- 
tion; 21  were  illiterate  and  the  amount  of  ed- 
ucation of  three  was  unknown.  The  informa- 
tion obtained  with  regard  to  their  ages,  nativity, 
conjugal  condition,  and  previous  occupations, 
has  been  summarized  in  Table  IX.  The  following 
additional  facts  may  be  of  interest:  Thirty-eight 
of  the  men  drank  to  excess,  seven  took  drugs, 
46  were  "tramps,"  and  18  had  criminal  tendencies. 
Eight  had  been  in  jails,  four  had  been  in  peni- 
tentiaries, 10  had  been  in  Chouses  of  correction, 
two  had  been  in  reform  schools,  two  had  been  in 
drink  cures,  two  had  been  in  homes  for  the  blind, 
two  had  been  in  orphanages.  More  knowledge 
of  the  men  would  undoubtedly  have  increased  many 
of  the  figures  given.* 

*  For  information  concerning  the  physical  and  mental  condition 
of  these  men,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  22,  p.  300. 

,65 


HOMELESS    MEN 
CLASS  I 

ANTI-SOCIAL   MEN    WHO   CONSIDER  SOCIETY  THEIR  PREY 

Of  chronic  beggars  who  were  distinctly  anti- 
social when  they  came  to  our  attention,  if  not 
actually  criminal,  there  seem  to  have  been  at  least 
48  among  the  1 35  men  listed;  there  may  have  been 
more.*  Each  of  these  men  had  or  could  have  had 
other  means  of  support,  but  begged  by  preference. 
Some  had  near  relatives  able  and  willing  to  support 
them;  others  by  their  own  admissions,  could  have 
supported  themselves;  and  still  others,  while 
seriously  handicapped  physically,  were  offered 
opportunities  for  self-support  and  refused  them. 
All  made  a  business  or  profession  of  begging  and 
1 8  were  criminal  as  well  as  mendicant. 

Most  of  these  men  seemed  to  have  entered  the 
"profession"  young.  Their  average  age  was 
thirty-four  and  one-half  years;  66  per  cent  were 
under  forty  years  of  age  and  43  per  cent  under 
thirty.  Eight  had  no  work  record  at  all  and  others 
had  had  very  little  legitimate  employment  and 
that  some  time  previous  to  our  acquaintance  with 
them.  A  number  of  them  were  crippled  or 
maimed,  but  several  of  these  are  known  to  have 
met  with  accidents  while  tramping  or  to  have  been 

*  The  figures  as  to  the  number  of  men  in  each  particular  group 
described  in  this  chapter  represent  the  writer's  best  judgment,  based 
upon  study  of  all  available  information  regarding  the  men  and  per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  a  large  proportion  of  them.  Fuller  knowl- 
edge of  facts,  in  certain  doubtful  cases,  might  have  led  to  a  different 
decision  as  to  classification.  The  figures  here  given  are  therefore  pre- 
sented as  approximately  rather  than  as  absolutely  exact. 

166 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

injured  after,  and  not  before,  they  became  mendi- 
cants.* 

Mentally,  these  48  men  represented  a  rather 
higher  average  of  ability  than  was  the  case  with  the 
remainder  of  the  chronic  beggars.  Sixteen  of 
their  number  were  well  educated  and  had  come 
from  good  families;  five  were  college  men;  10 
others  had  been  to  high  schools.  The  stories 
they  told  were  ingenious  and  plausible  and  the 
men  often  showed  pride  in  the  originality  and 
success  of  their  own  particular  methods  of  im- 
posture. One  man  told  me  his  method  and  said: 
"I  have  been  at  this  business  for  seven  years  and 
that  story  works  the  best  of  any  I  have  tried  yet. 
It  is  original  with  me  and  is  worth  good  money." 
Then  he  added,  as  if  suddenly  mistrusting  the 
wisdom  of  having  confided  it  to  me,  "  I  hope  you 
won't  let  any  one  else  get  onto  it." 

That  many  of  the  men  consider  imposture  a 
business,  if  not  quite  a  legitimate  business,  is 
evidenced  by  the  way  in  which  they  refer  to  it. 
A  persistent  begging-letter  writer,  who  was  twice 
caught  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary  by  the  secre- 
tary of  the  charity  organization  society  of  an 
eastern  city,  said  frankly  when  he  was  offered  an 
opportunity  to  take  legitimate  employment  upon 
his  discharge,  "  I  am  quite  satisfied  with  my  pres- 
ent employment.  It  is  easy,  it  pays  well,  and  I'm 
my  own  boss.  If  I  want  to  lay  off  for  a  few  days 

*  The  stories  of  several  of  these  maimed  beggars  are  given  in 
Chapter  IV,  p.  44.  The  Crippled  and  Maimed. 

.67 


IOMELESS   MEN 

>r  go  on  a^^pree  there's  no  one  to  kick  about  it, 
[ancHjean't  see  but  that  it's  just  as  good  a  business 
Wany  other."  When  warned  that  it  was  pro- 
hibited by  law  and  that  he  would  be  arrested  again 
if  he  continued  in  it,  he  admitted  this  but  said  that 
that  was  a  chance  he  must  look  out  for,  adding, 
"There  are  risks  of  some  sort  in  most  any  line." 

Several  men  held  that  their  business  was  legiti- 
mate because  they  used  no  coercion.  "  I  don't 
hold  a  man  up  with  a  gun,"  said  one  beggar.  "  He 
doesn't  have  to  give  to  me  if  he  doesn't  want  to, 
and  if  he  wants  to,  I  don't  see  that  it's  anybody's 
business  but  his  and  mine."  Why  the  charity  organ- 
ization societies  or  the  police  departments  should 
try  to  protect  the  interests  of  citizens  who  are  so 
"easy"  as  to  be  taken  in  by  beggars  is  a  matter 
which  these  men  often  claimed  not  to  understand. 

The  men  who  pretended  to  defend  their  mendi- 
cancy were  few,  however,  in  comparison  with  those 
who  admitted  its  illegitimacy  but  regarded  the 
possibility  of  arrest  as  one  of  the  accepted  risks 
of  the  business.  "But  you've  no  right  to  help 
the  police,"  one  man  said.  "  If  they  can't  get  me 
of  their  own  accord,  it  isn't  fair  for  you  to  butt  in 
and  give  me  away."  Disapproval  of  having  the 
charity  organization  society  report  descriptions 
and  facts  regarding  beggars  to  the  police  was 
not  infrequently  expressed  in  one  way  or  another, 
not  only  by  these  men  but  by  others,  and  while 
it  never  deterred  us  from  doing  so  when  such  a 
course  seemed  necessary  or  best,  it  did  lead  us,  for 

168 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

the  sake  of  our  influence  with  the  lodging  house  ap- 
plicants, to  take  such  action  only  as  a  last  resort 
and  when  all  other  efforts  to  persuade  the  men'jo 
abandon  begging  had  failed. 

It  is  difficult  to  state  just  how  many  criminals 
there  may  have  been  among  these  48  anti-social 
beggars,  since  it  was  often  only  after  a  man  had 
"operated"  in  several  cities  that  we  were  able,  by 
correspondence,  to  discover  that  he  was  of  this 
type.  We  know,  however,  that  10  men  had  served 
sentences  other  than  for  vagrancy,  and  that  at  least 
18  had  marked  criminal  tendencies.  If  all  the 
facts  could  have  been  secured,  it  is  probable  that 
both  these  figures  would  have  been  greater.* 
Seven  of  the  18  men  of  known  criminal  tendencies 
were  of  foreign  birth  and  had  had  criminal  records 
both  in  Europe  and  in  America.  Among  these  one 
case  may  be  interesting  to  cite,  that  of  a  Nor- 
wegian by  birth,  who  has  since  died  in  an  eastern 
penitentiary.  We  have  since  found  upon  investi- 
gation that  this  man,  who  was  asking  aid  in  Chicago 
in  1903-4,  had  a  criminal  record  in  this  country  and 
Europe  which  included  among  other  offenses:  big- 
amy, securing  money  from  women  under  promise 
of  marriage,  defrauding  a  life  insurance  company, 
swindling  several  hotels  and  a  lodge,  receiving 
money  under  false  pretenses,  robbery,  burglary, 
attempting  to  dispose  of  the  body  of  a  dead 

*  I  have  not  counted  as  criminals  the  petty  thieves  in  the  group. 
We  found  that  there  were  a  good  many  homeless  men  who  would  not 
scruple  to  steal  a  hat,  an  umbrella,  or  an  overcoat  if  it  was  handy  to 
do  so,  but  who  would  not  hold  up  a  citizen  nor  break  into  a  residence. 

.69 


HOMELESS   MEN 

infant,  perjury  when  acting  as  a  witness,  and  black- 
mail. His  career  was  a  long,  continuous  chain 
of  crimes  for  several  of  which  he  had  served  terms 
in  American  and  European  prisons.  But  the  sig- 
nificant thing  about  this  man's  history  was  that 
during  all  the  years  in  which  he  was  securing 
large  sums  of  money  by  the  methods  referred  to, 
he  was  at  the  same  time  constantly  adding  smaller 
amounts  to  his  income  by  clever  begging.  His 
favorite  method  was  to  represent  himself  as  almost 
starving  in  a  strange  city  and  to  implore  money  for 
transportation  to  his  family  and  to  certain  employ- 
ment in  some  other  city.  He  was  frail  and  deli- 
cate in  appearance  and  in  spite  of  his  true  character 
he  preserved  to  the  end  of  his  career  an  innocent 
and  almost  boyish  expression  which  served  him 
well  in  his  "profession." 

Another  criminal  beggar  was  a  ne'er-do-well 
son  of  a  fine  Southern  family,  who  shortly  after 
his  graduation  from  college  killed  a  man  in  a 
drunken  quarrel  in  a  saloon.  Because  of  his 
condition  when  the  shooting  occurred  he  was 
sentenced  for  manslaughter  instead  of  murder 
and  served  but  a  few  years  in  a  penitentiary. 
While  there  his  record  was  excellent,  but  immedi- 
ately upon  his  discharge  he  took  up  "refined" 
begging  and  imposture  as  a  profession  and  is 
still  making  a  good  living  at  it.  Another  criminal 
beggar  now  serving  time  in  a  New  York  peni- 
tentiary was  a  very  well  educated  German  who 
was  known  to  the  charity  organization  societies  of 

170 


CHRONIC   BEGGARS 

several  cities  under  eight  different  aliases.  An- 
other man,  also  an  educated  German,  was  referred 
to  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities  under  two 
different  names  and  was  later  found  by  the  New 
York  Charity  Organization  Society  to  be  operat- 
ing under  not  fewer  than  twelve  aliases.  This 
man  was  later  arrested  by  the  New  York  society, 
but  since  his  release  has  again  been  reported  as 
begging  both  in  New  York  and  in  other  cities. 
There  is  little  question  but  that  an  indeterminate 
penitentiary  sentence  was  the  only  form  of  "assist- 
ance" which  would  have  served  to  check  the  illegal 
careers  of  most  of  these  criminal  beggars,  and  other 
deterrent  and  reformative  methods  of  treatment 
were  as  certainly  needed  by  others  of  the  parasitic 
group  who  were  not  so  distinctly  criminal  but 
who  were,  nevertheless,  anti-social  in  their  tend- 
encies and  habits. 

Lack  of  space  prohibits  detailed  account  of  the 
attempts  made  by  the  Bureau  to  reinstate  these 
parasitic  beggars.  There  were  a  few  of  them  who 
were  reported  to  the  office  by  citizens  a  number  of 
times  and  from  all  parts  of  the  city,  but  where 
they  lived  we  never  knew.  They  invariably  gave 
false  addresses  and  although  in  some  instances  we 
learned  a  good  deal  regarding  them  we  were  of 
course  unable  to  influence  them  in  any  way. 
Twenty-one  men  of  the  48  came  to  the  office  on 
their  own  initiative  or  when  referred  by  citizens, 
but  frankly  declined  to  co-operate  in  any  plans 
which  might  render  them  self-supporting.  We 

171 


HOMELESS    MEN 

took  out  warrants  for  the  arrest  of  seven  of  these, 
only  four  of  whom  were  found  by  the  police. 
When  brought  into  court  citizens  from  whom  they 
had  begged  refused  to  prosecute  two  of  the  men ; 
the  third  man  was  dismissed  with  a  warning,  and 
the  fourth  was  fined. 

The  results  of  arrest  were  rather  more  satis- 
factory in  certain  other  cases  which  were  brought 
into  court  but  which  do  not  happen  to  be  among 
the  particular  thousand  under  consideration. 

Upon  the  whole,  however,  recourse  to  the  law 
did  not  seem  to  be  as  effective  a  method  of  forcing 
these  men  to  cease  begging  in  Chicago  as  was  a 
rather  wide  publication  of  their  descriptions  and 
stories  in  the  newspapers,  and  sending  letters  of 
warning  against  them  to  pastors  and  other  citizens. 
These  measures  usually  led  the  men  to  leave  the 
city,  which  relieved  Chicago  of  their  presence  but 
as  certainly  inflicted  them  upon  some  other  com- 
munity, so  that  nothing  of  permanent  value  was 
accomplished  by  such  action. 

For  19  of  the  48  parasites  (40  per  cent)  many 
efforts  looking  toward  reform  were  made,  no  one 
of  which  at  the  end  of  from  five  to  eight  years  after- 
wards has  proved  to  be  of  lasting  success.  /Two 
drug-users  were  cured  in  institutions  and  for  a 
short  time  thereafter  ceased  public  begging. 
Recent  investigation,  however,  shows  that  both 
have  since  relapsed.  Of  other  cases  in  which 
treatment  \v;is  lor  a  time  apparently  successful, 
the  most  typical,  probably,  t  are  those  of  two 

172 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

blind  beggars,  one  of  whom  has  been  known  to 
the  office  seven  and  one-half  years  and  the  other 
ten,  and  for  each  of  whom  several  hundred  dollars 
and  a  great  amount  of  time  and  effort  have  been 
spent.  One  of  the  two,  through  the  Bureau's 
assistance,  was  taught  a  trade  and  furnished  the 
material  and  machinery  with  which  to  work  at 
it,  making  him  entirely  capable  of  earning  his 
own  living,  but  he  sold  the  machinery  and  returned 
to  begging.  Almost  as  much  was  done  for  the 
other,  but  both  today  are  again  parasitic  beggars. 
When  a  sufficient  amount  of  effort  has  been 
spent  to  make  a  beggar  self-supporting  and  it  is 
proved  beyond  reasonable  doubt  that  he  is  deter- 
mined to  prey  upon  the  community,  I  do  not 
believe  that  it  pays  to  waste  further  time  or  money 
in  constructive  work;  deterrent  and  reformative 
measures  should  then  be  adopted,  whether  the  man 
is  physically  handicapped  or  not.  His  influence 
is  distinctly  bad  and  he  ought  to  be  segregated,  but 
whether  he  should  be  placed  in  a  penitentiary,  a 
reform  school,  a  hospital,  or  on  a  farm  colony  must 
depend,  in  each  individual  case,  upon  the  facts 
which  careful  investigation  brings  to  light  as  to  the 
nature  and  cause  of  his  parasitism. 

CLASS  II 

BEGGARS  WHO  HAVE  DRIFTED  INTO  THE  HABIT 

There  is  another  type  of  beggar  which  from  ex- 
perience with  occasional  as  well  as  with  chronic 


HOMELESS   MEN 

beggars,  I  believe  to  be  the  commonest  type  of  all, 
although  in  the  group  of  135  discussed  in  this 
chapter  they  appear  to  be  somewhat  less  numerous 
than  the  more  active  and  dangerous  beggars  just 
described.  These  are  men  who  have  once — per- 
haps for  a  number  of  years — been  fully  self- 
supporting  and  self-respecting  citizens,  who  are 
not  now  criminal  nor  anti-social  in  spirit  but  who, 
from  the  combination  of  many  causes,  both  social 
and  individual,  have  gradually  and  almost  uncon- 
sciously drifted  into  the  habit  of  begging. 

That  most  of  these  men  did  not  in  the  beginning 
possess  strong  characters,  sound  bodies,  and  well- 
trained  minds,  need  hardly  be  stated.  Many  of 
them  had  never  been  very  efficient  or  industrious, 
but  neither  had-fchey  in  the  beginning  been  idlers 
nor  dependents.  The  records  show  that  their 
first  appeals  to  charity  were  infrequent  and  not 
resorted  to  when  work  or  other  means  of  support 
were  readily  available.  But  many  of  them  seem 
to  have  held  no  very  strong  convictions  against 
begging — a  fact  which  may  have  been  partly  due 
to  long  association  in  lodging  houses  with  men  who 
lived  by  their  wits.  When,  therefore,  under  the 
stress  of  some  temporary  necessity — illness,  acci- 
dent, lack  of  employment,  or  any  other  unantici- 
pated misfortune — they  crossed  the  line  and  dis- 
covered the  ease  with  which  they  could  live  by 
begging,  few  of  them  probably  again  put  forth 
quite  the  same  amount  of  effort  to  maintain  their 
independence.  If,  at  the  time  they  made  their 


CHRONIC   BEGGARS 

first  appeals  for  charitable  aid,  alms  had  been 
refused  and  the  particular  sort  of  help  which  they 
really  needed  offered  in  its  stead,  there  is  little 
question  but  that  many  of  them  would  gladly 
have  accepted  it  and  been  saved  from  much  later 
suffering  and  degradation.  For  the  initial  needs 
which  lead  men  of  this  type  to  beg  are  in  many 
cases  trifling:  a  few  dollars  are  stolen  from  them 
at  a  lodging  house  and  for  lack  of  these  a  man 
comes  to  want  before  he  can  find  employment; 
a  trunk  is  held  for  storage,  and  not  being  able  to 
redeem  it  a  man  lacking  proper  clothing  cannot 
take  a  place  at  his  accustomed  work,  and  in 
unaccustomed  work  he  perhaps  suffers  some  tem- 
porary injury  which  still  further  handicaps  him. 

Behind  these  relatively  trifling  misfortunes  which 
the  men  present  as  excuses  for  begging  lie  the 
undeniable  facts  that  they  had  made  no  provi- 
sion for  the  future  when  they  were  earning  com- 
fortable wages;  that  they  had  perhaps  given  up 
good  positions  when  they  held  them  without 
sufficient  reasons  for  doing  so,  and  that  indulgence 
in  drink  and  vice  in  very  many  cases  accounted 
for  their  inability  to  carry  themselves  over  small 
emergencies  like  those  mentioned.  Neverthe- 
less, they  did  not  in  these  respects  differ  much 
from  other  workmen  who  did  not  become  beggars, 
and  study  of  their  records  shows  that  the  de- 
terioration of  many  was  so  gradual  that  probably 
if  at  any  time  during  a  number  of  consecutive 
years  they  had  received  more  intelligent  help  just 

175 


HOMELESS   MEN 

when  they  needed  it  or 'could  have  been  withdrawn 
from  the  lodging  house  environment,  their  further 
degeneration  might  have  been  prevented  and  they 
perhaps  could  have  been  brought  back  into  normal 
relations  with  society,  j 

There  were  at  least  44  of  these  degenerate- 
workmen  beggars  among  the  chronic  beggars  under 
discussion  and  most  of  them  had  remained  on  the 
borderline  for  years,  working  when  work  was 
plentiful  and  begging  when  it  was  not.  The  nat- 
ural tendency  in  every  case,  however,  had  been  for 
the  work  periods  to  grow  shorter  and  those  of 
willing  dependence  longer  until  the  man's  char- 
acter, health,  and  efficiency  were  so  far  impaired 
by  his  manner  of  life  that  he  could  no  longer  be 
self-supporting  if  he  would.*  The  habit  of  begging 
did  not,  in  any  of  these  cases,  become  chronic 
until  after  drink,  drugs,  disease,  accident,  or  age 
had  seriously  handicapped  the  man.  At  the  time 
of  their  application  to  the  Bureau  only  10  of  the 
44  could  be  considered  as  in  sound  physical  condi- 
tion and  of  these,  six  were  over  fifty-three  years  of 
age.  Nineteen  of  the  44  (or  43  per  cent)  were 
habitual  drunkards.  This  is  a  higher  percentage 
of  drunkenness  than  was  found  among  other  types 
of  beggars  or  among  homeless  men  in  general. 
That  these  men  had  taken  to  mendicancy  rather 
late  in  life  is  evidenced  in  part  by  the  fact  that 
their  average  age  is  forty-seven.  That  long  resi- 
dence in  cheap  lodging  houses  had  contributed  to 

*  See  Chapter  IX,  p.  139.     Seasonal  and  Casual  Labor. 

176 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

the  demoralization  of  a  majority  of  them  is  prob- 
able, since  48  per  cent  had  spent  an  average  of 
eight  years  in  the  district.  Thirty-four  per  cent 
had  been  in  Chicago  less  than  a  year,  but  of  these, 
several  had  lived  for  some  time  in  the  cheap  lodging 
houses  of  other  cities.  We  have  no  record  of  the 
length  of  timeS  per  cent  of  the  men  had  lived  in  the 
lodging  houses,  but  in  the  remaining  five  cases  (10 
per  cent)  the  men  had  been  in  Chicago  for  over 
twenty  years  and  had  undoubtedly  spent  a  number 
of  them  in  the  lodging  house  district. 

In  the  matter  of  education  these  men  did  not 
rank  high.  None  had  been  to  college;  only  three 
had  been  to  high  school,  and  six  (possibly  eight) 
were  wholly  illiterate,  being  unable  to  read  or  write 
even  in  their  own  languages. 

Data  concerning  the  lines  of  work  they  had 
followed  during  the  periods  of  their  greatest  indus- 
trial efficiency  show  that  comparatively  few  had 
been  highly  skilled  workers.  Fifteen  were  skilled, 
four  partly  skilled,  and  25  wholly  unskilled.* 

For  the  most  degraded  among  these  ex-work- 
men beggars,  'there  was  very  little  that  we  could 
do  except  to  place  them  in  hospitals  or  asylums 
when  such  action  was  necessary.  Two  of  the  men 
in  this  group  went  insane  and  one  died  of  delirium 
tremens  during  our  acquaintance  with  them,  and 
eight  of  the  most  hideously  besotted  and  diseased 
men  of  the  whole  thousand  were  among  this  par- 

*  For  list  of  occupations  of  these  men,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  23, 
p.  300. 

12  ,77 


HOMELESS   MEN 

ticular  group  of  beggars  all  of  whom  had  once 
been  self-respecting  workingmen. 

For  the  men  who  were  not  so  degraded,  however, 
we  made  many  efforts  at  reclamation,  all  finally 
unsuccessful.  Work  was  offered  to  almost  every 
man;  some  refused  it,  others  took  it,  but  the  result 
in  the  end  was  the  same.  Much  more  than  em- 
ployment was  needed  to  save  them  from  further 
demoralization,  and  the  remedies  which  were 
needed  we  were  unable  to  furnish.  We  could 
not  cut  off  their  source  of  income, — the  indis- 
criminate relief  furnished  by  charitable  citizens,— 
for  too  many  people  continue  to  believe  that  such 
relief  is  necessary  to  prevent  suffering;  we  could 
not  send  the  men  to  compulsory  labor  colonies 
where  they  could  be  kept  until  work  habits  were 
re-established,  for  the  state  provides  none.  We 
could  not  send  the  habitual  drunkards  among 
them  to  colonies  or  institutions  where  they  might 
be  cured  of  their  habit,  for  none  exist  in  Illinois 
which  can,  by  law,  hold  men  against  their  wills, 
and  none  of  these  men  would  go  voluntarily.  We 
could  not  forcibly  remove  them  from  the  city 
lodging  house  district,  and  lastly,  we  were  not 
able  in  any  one  of  these  particular  cases  to  gain  a 
sufficient  influence  over  the  men,  or  to  put  them 
in  the  way  of  being  influenced  enough  by  others, 
to  persuade  them  to  abandon  permanently  their 
habits  of  mendicancy,  vice,  and  drink.  , 

The  greatest   single  difference  between   these 
degenerate- workmen  beggars  and  the  criminal  and 

178 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

parasitic  group  from  which  in  spite  of  some  com- 
mon characteristics  I  have  separated  them,  is 
that  as  before  stated,  these  men,  during  a  period 
of  several  years  at  least,  might  have  been  brought 
back  to  right  relations  with  society  had  it  been 
possible  to  apply  the  constructive  remedies  needed 
to  check  their  degeneration.  In  other  words, 
society  appears  to  have  been  at  least  as  responsible 
as  the  men  themselves  for  their  final  downfall, 
whereas  some  peculiar  and  perhaps  inherent  twist 
of  character  deformed  the  men  of  the  other  group 
and  made  their  complete  restoration  to  social  health 
and  usefulness  doubtful  almost  from  the  beginning. 


CLASS  III 

BEGGARS  WITH  PERSONAL  AND  SOCIAL  HANDICAPS 

A  third  common  type  of  city  beggar  is  one 
whose  personal  and  social  development  is  sub- 
normal. Glancing  at  causes,  in  passing,  merely 
to  give  a  clearer  picture  of  the  type  referred  to: 
he  is  the  boy,  or  the  man  grown  from  the  boy, 
whose  childhood  has  been  neglected  and  who  in 
consequence  reaches  manhood  without  the  equip- 
ment necessary  for  fighting  the  battle  of  life. 
In  many  cases  he  has  grown  up  in  the  poorer 
sections  of  a  large  city,  popularly  known  as  its 
"slums."  He  has  had  little  if  any  schooling. 
We  found  a  number  of  such  boys  and  men  to  be 
unable  to  read  or  write  and  few  of  them  had  passed 
the  third  or  fourth  grade  in  school. 

179 


HOMELESS    MEN 

At  about  fifteen  this  boy,  who  later  becomes  a 
mendicant,  usually  spends  a  year  or  two  on  the 
road  as  a  tramp,  after  which  he  settles  down  in 
the  lodging  house  section  of  his  own  or  some  other 
large  city  and  drifts  into  the  habit  of  chronic 
begging.  The  keener  witted  boys  of  this  neglected 
type  often  develop  into  criminals  or  actively 
parasitic  beggars  like  those  first  described,  but  the 
lads  to  whom  I  now  refer  are  generally  slightly 
below  normal  physically  or  mentally  and  for  this 
or  for  other  reasons  they  do  not  actively  take 
up  arms  against  society.  Sometimes  they  are 
persistent  in  their  begging,  but  usually  are  apa- 
thetic and  dull  and  not  at  all  individual  or 
clever  in  their  methods  of  gaining  a  living  by 
mendicancy. 

Of  the  1 1  boys  or  men  of  this  type  who  are 
listed  among  these  135  chronic  beggars,  only  two 
had  work  records  of  any  kind;  one  of  these  for  a 
short  time  had  been  a  messenger  boy  and  the  other 
a  newsboy — both  lines  of  work  in  which  they 
received  no  training  to  fit  them  for  later  useful- 
ness. But  while  none  of  these  men  had  ever  been 
self-supporting,  none  seemed  to  beg  from  a  desire 
to  live  at  the  expense  of  the  public;  rather  they 
begged  because  they  did  not  know  how  to  find  a  liv- 
ing in  any  other  way.  The  stories  of  our  efforts  in 
behalf  of  two  or  three  of  these  "city-bred  drifters" 
may  be  of  interest.* 

*  For  brief  digests  of  the  cases  of  the  1 1  men  in  this  class,  see  Ap- 
pendix A,  Table  24,  p.  301. 

180 


CHRONIC   BEGGARS 

T.  P.  left  school  at  about  the  third  grade; 
between  fourteen  and  fifteen  years  of  age  worked 
irregularly  as  a  messenger  boy,  but  by  the  time  he 
was  nineteen  had  tramped  all  over  America  and 
had  twice  been  to  Europe  and  back.  He  was  a  de- 
cent looking  fellow,  able-bodied  and  of  average  men- 
tality. He  did  not  seem  vicious  nor  was  he  even 
especially  lazy ;  he  was  simply  untrained.  We  sent 
him  to  several  places  for  employment.  In  one  he 
found  the  work  too  heavy  and  from  the  others  he 
was  dismissed  as  incapable.  He  soon  wandered 
onto  the  road  again  and  has  not  for  several  years 
applied  to  the  Bureau.  There  is  little  question 
but  that  this  boy,  who  at  twenty-one  (his  age  when 
we  last  saw  him)  was  still  willing  to  work,  might 
have  developed  into  a  useful  citizen,  instead  of  a 
tramp,  if  during  his  childhood  and  adolescence  he 
could  have  received  the  sort  of  care,  education,  and 
industrial  training  needed  to  fit  him  for  life.  , 

The  second  story  is  that  of  a  boy,  also  born  in  a 
large  city,  who  when  his  own  home  was  for  some 
reason  broken  up,  was  placed  in  an  immense 
institution  for  children.  He  remained  there  for  a 
long  period  during  which  he  received  little  or  no 
individual  training.  Shortly  after  he  left  the  in- 
stitution this  lad  met  with  an  accident  through 
which  he  lost  one  leg.  We  endeavored  to  help 
him  by  securing  an  artificial  leg.  His  record  in 
the  interval  between  his  dismissal  from  the  or- 
phanage and  his  accident  was  not  unfavorable  to 
him  and  we  hoped  by  prompt  assistance  and 

181 


HOMELESS   MEN 

friendly  supervision  to  save  the  boy  from  becom- 
ing a  vagrant.  It  was  not  until  after  he  had 
sold  the  leg  and  gone  to  begging  again  that  we 
learned  what  perhaps  we  should  have  discovered 
earlier — that  he  was  too  undeveloped  mentally, 
too  lacking  in  the  habit  of  independent  thought 
and  action  because  of  the  long  years  he  had  spent 
under  direction,  to  be  able  to  care  for  himself 
even  when  given  an  amount  of  assistance  which 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  rehabilitate  the 
average  man  who  is  not  immoral.  He  did  not  beg 
because  of  his  lameness, — with  the  artificial  leg 
he  had  learned  to  walk  without  a  limp, — nor  did 
he  deliberately  choose  to  be  dependent  upon 
others.  His  mental  incapacity  to  grapple  with 
the  problem  of  his  own  support  alone  seemed  to 
account  for  his  choice  of  the  line  of  least  resistance. 

Orphanage  graduates  and  former  wards  of  vari- 
ous institutions  for  children  are  sometimes  found 
among  homeless  men,  as  might  be  expected  from 
the  fact  of  their  homelessness,  and  I  do  not  re- 
call one  among  those  with  whom  I  became  ac- 
quainted whose  capacity  for  independence  when 
he  entered  the  larger  world  had  not  been  seriously 
affected  by  the  fact  that  personal  initiative  had 
remained  practically  undeveloped  during  the  long 
period  of  his  stay  in  a  large  institution. 

The  third  man's  story  is  also  typical  and  is 
presented  because  it  shows  how  useless  is  the 
method  society  at  present  employs  in  the  hope 
of  reforming  beggars  of  this  type.  This  man  was 

182 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

thirty-six  at  the  time  he  was  referred  to  the  Bureau. 
He  was  perfectly  sound  physically  and  apparently 
of  average  intelligence.  He  did  not  drink  to 
excess  but  was  illiterate  and  had  had  no  work 
record  whatever.  At  the  time  he  came  to  us  he 
had  been  dismissed  from  the  Bridewell,*  after 
serving  his  third  successive  term  for  vagrancy. 
He  asked  only  for  work.  We  sent  him  to  several 
positions  for  temporary  employment;  he  took 
each  of  them  and  did  fairly  well  for  a  man  so 
untrained  and  so  lazy  by  temperament.  We 
watched  him  for  several  weeks,  furnishing  him 
a  new  job  as  soon  as  the  last  was  completed,  but 
it  was  not  possible  by  such  haphazard  and  unsci- 
entific efforts  to  fan  into  a  living  flame  the  faint 
spark  of  a  desire  for  independence  which  the  man 
for  a  short  time  had  displayed.  From  one  job  to 
which  he  was  sent  he  did  not  return  to  report  and 
we  never  saw  him  again.  He  probably  decided 
that  an  occasional  short  term  in  a  house  of  cor- 
rection was  pleasanter  to  endure  than  work  every 
day  of  the  year,  and  willingly  slipped  back  into 
his  old  mode  of  life. 

Punishment  by  imprisonment  is  not  what  is 
needed  for  vagrants  of  this  type,  of  whom  there 
are  perhaps  several  thousands  in  ^America,  but 
rather  commitment  to  compulsory  labor  colonies 
like  those  of  Belgium  and  Switzerland,  where 
habits  of  industry  may  be  inculcated  in  men  who 
have  never  worked  or  who  have  long  been  idle, 

*  The  Chicago  House  of  Correction. 

183 


HOMELESS    MEN 


and  where  untrained  men  may  receive  training 
which  will  fit  them  for  self-support  upon  their 
dismissal. 


CLASS  IV 

ACCIDENTAL  BEGGARS 

One  more  quite  distinct  type  of  beggar  who 
appears  upon  the  streets  of  every  city  may  be 
briefly  discussed.  This  is  the  man  who  takes  to 
begging  from  what  would  generally  be  termed 
"necessity/' — certainly  in  each  case  either  from 
misfortune  for  which  he  himself  was  not  person- 
ally responsible,  or  from  a  compelling  subjective 
necessity.  Of  such  men  there  are  far  fewer  who 
become  chronic  beggars  than  who  follow  begging 
for  but  a  short  time;  and  both  relatively  and  abso- 
lutely the  total  number  of  such  beggars  is  much 
smaller  than  is  popularly  supposed.  All  of  these 
men  have  once  been  fully  self-supporting  but 
they  differ  from  the  "degenerate  workmen''  in 
that  they  have  not  degenerated  in  character  and 
thus  drifted  into  begging,  but  in  every  case  have 
maintained  independence  until  because  of  age  or 
some  other  unavoidable  handicap  they  were 
no  longer  able  to  support  themselves.  If  they 
refuse  to  go  to  a  poorhouse  where  they  might 
receive  care  without  the  need  of  publicly  begging 
for  it,  such  refusals  are  usually  based  upon  the 
best  instincts  of  the  men.  They  feel  themselves 
to  be,  and  are,  above  the  grade  of  the  class  of  men 

184 


CHRONIC   BEGGARS 

who  at  present  drift  into  poorhouses  to  end  their 
days,  and  they  will  not  associate  with  them.  In 
short,  they  are  men  who  might  be  called  "acci- 
dental" beggars,  using  the  word  much  as  the 
criminologist  does  when  he  describes  a  certain 
type  of  criminal  as  an  "accidental  criminal/' 

Eighteen  men  were  of  this  type.  So  far  as  we 
could  discover  from  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  men  themselves,  or  by  means  of  conversation 
or  correspondence  with  others  who  knew  them  well, 
no  one  of  the  18  was  parasitic  in  spirit.  Their 
average  age  was  fifty-seven,  ten  years  greater 
than  that  of  the  degenerate-workmen  beggars  and 
twenty-five  years  greater  than  that  of  the  men  in 
the  criminal  and  anti-social  group.  A  few  of  these 
men  had  dropped  almost  directly  from  self-support 
into  beggary,  but  more  of  them  had  suffered  during 
a  period  of  several  years  while  ill  health  or  old  age 
had  rendered  them  increasingly  unable  to  live  with- 
out charitable  aid,  but  during  which  they  had  not 
relinquished  their  desire  to  be  self-supporting. 

Although  only  one  man  in  this  group  was 
physically  in  good  condition — and  he  was  seventy- 
five  years  of  age — six  of  the  18  asked  for  work  also 
when  they  were  referred  to  us  for  material  aid.* 

The  digests  in  Appendix  A  give  a  few  further 
facts  about  this  group  and  show  what  we  did 
or  tried  to  do  in  their  behalf.  It  will  be  noted 
that  in  several  cases  we  did  nothing  which  per- 

*  For  brief  digests  of  the  cases  of  16  men  in  Class  IV,  see  Appendix 
A,  Table  25,  p.  302. 

.85 


HOMELESS   MEN 

manently  helped  the  men  (in  every  case  some 
temporary  aid  was  furnished);  the  reasons  for 
this  were  partly  that  we  had  no  way  of  holding 
them  and  therefore  sometimes  lost  track  of  men 
whom  we  should  have  been  glad  to  aid  further; 
and  partly  that  we  found  ourselves  quite  unable 
to  secure  the  sort  of  institutional  care,  or  the 
money  to  supply  adequate  continuous  aid  outside 
of  institutions,  which  was  needed  in  certain  of 
these  cases  as  well  as  in  many  others.  A  society 
whose  work  is  supported  entirely  by  private  con- 
tributions can  go  no  further  in  helping  its  ap- 
plicants than  the  resources  of  the  community  and 
the  contributions  of  its  supporters  and  friends  will 
permit. 

Within  the  four  classes  described,  I  have  in- 
cluded all  but  14  of  the  135  beggars.  The  14 
not  included  were  men  whose  characteristics, 
like  those  of  the  blind  man  who  begged  from  a 
desire  for  sympathy,  were  rather  unusual  and  were 
not  found  in  any  large  proportion  of  beggars; 
or  they  were  men  about  whom  we  knew  too  little 
to  attempt  to  classify  them,  although  they  were 
reported  to  the  office  frequently  so  that  it  is  fair 
to  include  them  among  "chronic"  beggars. 
Y_To  summarize,  the  four  main  types  of  beggars 
described  in  this  chapter  are:  First,  the  anti-social 
men  who  consider  society  their  prey.  These  are 
men  of  a  rather  high  average  mentality  who 
practice  imposture  as  a  business  and  refuse  oppor- 

186 


CHRONIC    BEGGARS 

tunities  for  self-support  when  they  are  offered. 
Second,  beggars  who  have  drifted  into  the  habit. 
These  are  men  of  weaker  mentality  who  are  easily 
influenced  for  or  against  better  ways  of  living  by 
their  surroundings.  They  do  not  make  begging  a 
profession  and  do  not  generally  become  chronic 
beggars  until  drink  or  disease  handicaps  them. 
Third,  beggars  with  personal  and  social  handicaps. 
These  men  are  socially  subnormal,  even  though 
they  are  not  necessarily  mentally  or  physically 
subnormal.  They  are  undeveloped  or  under- 
developed and  cannot,  if  they  would,  compete 
successfully  with  men  who  have  had  normal  op- 
portunities. Lastly,  there  are  the  "accidental" 
beggars, — the  men  whose  social  relations  were 
normal  until  age,  accident,  or  disease  put  it  beyond 
their  power  to  maintain  those  relations  and  who 
then  became  beggars  either  from  ignorance  or  from 
choice.  ^ 

Enough  has  probably  been  said  in  the  preceding 
pages  to  demonstrate  that  the  chronic  beggars  in 
our  cities  have  been  recruited  from  environments 
and  types  of  homes  too  various;  have  taken  to 
begging  for  reasons  too  widely  differing;  are  men 
whose  natural  abilities,  training,  physical  and 
mental  conditions  and  moral  standards  are  too 
diverse  in  character  and  unequal  in  amount,  for  it 
to  be  practicable  for  lawmakers  or  social  workers 
to  attempt  to  consider  and  deal  with  them  all 
"as  a  class." 

No  single  correctional  law,  no  one  inflexible 
187 


HOMELESS   MEN 

method  of  treatment  can  be  applied  with  success 
to  all.  Medical  care  is  needed  for  some;  special 
industrial  training  for  others;  material  aid  alone 
for  a  certain  small  group,  and  a  number  of  dif- 
ferent forms  of  correctional  and  reformatory  treat- 
ment in  institutions  and  in  colonies  for  still  others. 
Here,  as  frequently  before,  the  plea  must  be  made 
for  the  consideration  of  the  individual  man  upon 
the  basis  of  his  individual  merits  and  needs  as  these 
shall  be  discovered  through  intelligent,  thorough, 
and  sympathetic  investigation  of  his  history. 

The  task  of  re-building  or  of  building  up  for  the 
first  time,  self-respect  and  habits  of  industry  in 
men  who  have  become  chronic  beggars,  is  at  best 
a  difficult  one.  No  matter  how  much  time,  effort, 
and  money  we  may  expend,  and  no  matter  how 
drastic  may  be  our  laws  or  how  well  equipped  our 
penitentiaries,  the  effort,  unless  it  is  undertaken 
with  at  least  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  facts  as  to 
a  man's  physical  condition,  his  abilities,  tem- 
perament, training,  and  habits,  will  prove  to  be 
hopeless. 


188 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   INTER-STATE  MIGRATION  OF 
PAUPERS  AND  DEPENDENTS* 

OF  the  many  requests  of  many  sorts  which 
were  made  by  homeless  men  who  applied 
to  the  Bureau  of  Charities  for  aid,  no 
single  one  was  more  frequently  repeated  than  that 
for  free  or  half-rate  transportation  to  some  other 
point.  Tuberculous  men  asked  to  be  sent  to  the 
health  resorts  of  the  West,  or  to  be  returned  from 
them  to  relatives  or  friends  in  the  East.  Old  soldiers 
asked  transportation  to  soldiers'  homes  in  other 
states  where  they  thought  they  would  be  more  con- 
tented. Young  boys  asked  to  be  sent  to  their  homes 
or  to  mythical  uncles  in  the  far  West,  who  would 
start  them  up  in  business.  "Out-of-works"  asked 
half  rates  to  Minneapolis,  St.  Louis,  or  Pittsburgh, 
sure  that  plenty  of  work  could  be  found  in  other 
cities  when  it  was  scarce  in  Chicago.  Insane  men 
asked  tickets  to  Washington  in  order  that  they 
might  make  important  complaints  to  the  Presi- 
dent; while  innumerable  tramp-paupers,  who  had 
for  years  been  aimlessly  drifting  about  the  country 

*  See  also  The  Homeless  Man  and  Organized  Charity,  by  the 
author,  in  The  Survey,  Vol.  XXI,  p.  125. 

189 


HOMELESS    MEN 

at  the  expense  of  the  public,  begged  for  "a  charity 
ticket  to  anywhere/'  being  desirous  only  to  keep 
moving  and  quite  indifferent  as  to  whether  they 
went  north  or  south,  east  or  west. 

The  fact  that  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
boys,  unemployed  workmen,  tramps  and  vagrants 
are  stealing  rides  on  the  railroads  and  traveling 
about  the  country  without  personal  expense  is 
one  with  which  all  are  familiar,  but  that  a  second 
very  large  army  of  wanderers  is  traveling  from 
Maine  to  California,  and  back  again,  with  its  trans- 
portation paid  out  of  charity  funds,  is  a  fact  which 
is  probably  not  so  well  known. 

i  The  most  striking  differences  which  exist  be- 
tween the  two  armies  of  wanderers,  are,  first, 
that  the  "paid  for"  group  includes  hundreds  if 
not  thousands  of  women  and  children,  while  among 
those  who  beat  their  way  women  are  so  rare  as  to 
be  almost  unknown;  and  second,  that  although 
among  the  men  who  are  traveling  on  charity  tickets 
are  some  capable  of  self-support,  the  great  majority 
are  old,  crippled,  defective,  or  for  some  other 
reason  chronically  dependent,  while  in  the  other 
group  the  majority  of  men  are  young  and  able- 
bodied,  and  when  dependent  at  all  are  as  often  so 
from  choice  as  from  necessity,  j 

A  most  interesting  chapter  might  be  written 
about  the  tramp-women  and  the  tramp-families 
on  the  road,  figures  as  familiar  to  charity  workers 
as  men  tramps,  and  whose  restoration  to  normal 
living  presents  even  more  serious  and  difficult 

190 


INTER-STATE   MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

problems.  But  in  this  study  the  evils  of  the 
"passing  on''  system  can  be  considered  only 
as  they  relate  to  homeless  men,  although  attention 
need  scarcely  be  called  to  the  fact  that  since  the 
welfare  of  large  numbers  of  children  is  involved 
in  the  cases  of  women  and  of  families,  all  that  may 
be  said  of  the  unfortunate  results  of  the  practice 
among  men,  applies  with  even  greater  force  to  its 
other  victims. 

A  generally  recognized  principle  of  relief  is  that 
each  community  should  bear  the  burden  of  the 
care  of  its  own  dependents.  Laws  regulating  the 
voluntary  passage,  or  the  transfer  by  other  people, 
of  dependents  from  one  county  to  another  within 
a  state,  exist  in  the  majority  of  states  in  the 
Union,  and  laws  providing  for  the  return  of  per- 
sons who  are  found  to  be  insane  or  dependent 
after  they  have  drifted  or  been  sent  across  state 
lines,  but  before  they  have  become  legal  residents 
of  the  new  states,  are  upon  the  statute  books  of 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota, 
Colorado,  California,  and  a  few  other  states.  The 
need  for  such  laws  has  not  yet,  however,  been 
generally  recognized,  and  as  a  result  certain  states 
which  are  on  the  main  lines  of  travel,  and  which 
have  not  yet  so  protected  themselves,  have  been 
heavy  sufferers  from  the  unregulated  migration  of 
dependents  from  one  section  of  the  country  to 
another;  and  a  few  large  cities  have  become 
veritable  dumping  grounds  for  the  dependents  of 
all  the  surrounding  country. 

191 


HOMELESS   MEN 

Chicago,  especially  on  account  of  the  non-resi- 
dent dependents  thrust  upon  her  for  care,  has  been 
afflicted  with  an  enormous  burden  of  expense. 
Unless  there  is  a  state  law  which  empowers  it  to 
return  dependents  who  are  unwilling  to  go,  doing 
this  perhaps  at  the  expense  of  the  railroad  which 
brought  them  into  the  state,  a  city  cannot  rid  itself 
of  this  burden.  It  may  return  dependents  to  their 
homes  or  send  them  on  to  their  destinations  else- 
where, if  they  are  willing  to  go,  but  if  unwilling, 
it  cannot  compel  them  to  leave.  Dependent  per- 
sons are  not  permitted  to  starve  on  the  streets 
in  America,  and,  under  the  laws  existing  in  most 
states,  they  must  be  cared  for  either  by  public  or 
private  charity  wherever  they  may  elect  to  remain. 

In  1902  a  large  family  of  paupers  came  from 
Pennsylvania  to  Chicago.  The  man  was  blind, 
the  woman  crippled,  and  there  were  seven  children, 
the  oldest  of  whom  was  feeble-minded.  The  next 
child  was  only  ten,  so  that  it  would  be  four  years 
before  he  would  be  legally  able  by  work  to  con- 
tribute to  their  support.  In  the  meantime  the 
entire  family  would  have  to  be  supported  by 
charity.  We  ascertained  that  these  people  had 
never  in  their  history  been  self-supporting.  They 
had  received  public  and  private  aid  for  fifteen  years 
in  the  city  from  which  they  came,  and  they  had 
been  aided  to  reach  Chicago  by  the  poor  relief 
agents  of  their  own  county  and  of  a  chain  of 
counties  extending  across  the  three  states  through 
which  they  had  passed  on  their  way  to  Chicago. 

192 


INTER-STATE    MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

In  spite  of  our  definite  knowledge  of  these  facts, 
we  were  unable  to  return  this  family  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, for  the  simple  reason  that  they  refused  to 
go.  This  one  family  has  cost  the  public  and 
private  charities  of  Chicago,  at  a  conservative 
estimate,  not  less  than  $9,000  or  $10,000  since 
their  arrival,  and  the  amount  is  probably  much 
larger,  for  they  are  professional  beggars  and  have 
doubtless  secured  by  begging  more  than  the  actual 
cost  of  their  support. 

The  Central  District  of  the  Bureau  of  Chanties, 
at  the  time  I  was  connected  with  it,  covered  more 
than  20  square  miles  of  city  territory,  some  parts 
of  which  were  very  densely  populated,  but  one- 
half  of  all  the  cases  dealt  with  in  the  district  office 
were  those  of  non-residents.  This  was  largely  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  Central  District,  as  it  was  then 
defined,  included  the  central  portion  of  the  city  in 
which  are  most  of  the  railroad  stations,  hotels,  and 
cheap  lodging  houses.  While  more  non-residents 
came  to  the  Central  District  office  than  to  any 
one  of  the  1 1  other  district  offices  of  the  Bureau, 
no  district  entirely  escaped  the  problem  of  their 
care  and  two  other  districts  dealt  with  large  num- 
bers of  them.  In  1902  it  was  discovered  that 
three-fourths*  of  the  population  of  the  Cook 
County  hospital,  almshouse,  insane  asylum,  and 

.  *  This  proportion  has  since  been  considerably  reduced  because  the 
county  commissioners  have  instituted  the  plan  of  returning  to  their 
legal  residences  all  non-resident  insane  and  a  few  non-resident  de- 
pendents of  other  sorts  when  they  are  willing  to  go  and  can  furnish 
their  home  addresses. 

13  193 


HOMELESS    MEN 

infirmaries,  were  non-residents.  It  may  readily 
be  seen  from  these  facts  how  serious,  from  the  eco- 
nomic side  alone,  is  this  problem  of  the  unrestricted 
migration  of  dependents. 

There  are  a  great  many  cases  where  the  granting 
of  charitable  transportation  to  an  applicant  who 
requests  it  not  only  does  no  wrong  to  the  com- 
munity to  which  he  is  sent,  but  is  by  far  the  best 
and  most  economical  method  of  caring  for  the 
man  himself.  If,  to  save  an  old  man  from  the 
necessity  of  entering  the  local  poorhouse,  the 
authorities  in  his  native  county  send  him,  after 
an  exchange  of  letters,  to  a  relative  in  another 
state  who  is  willing  and  able  to  care  for  him,  the 
old  man  is  helped,  local  taxpayers  are  legitimately 
relieved  of  expense,  and  no  wrong  is  done  to  the 
community  which  receives  the  man.  Similarly, 
if  the  friends  and  relatives  of  a  consumptive,  whose 
disease  is  not  far  advanced,  are  willing  and  able 
to  pay  his  way  to  a  western  city,  and  to  guarantee 
the  expense  of  his  care  so  long  as  he  remains  there, 
or  until  he  recovers  and  is  able  to  support  himself, 
no  complaint  will  come  from  the  western  commu- 
nity, nor  from  the  states  through  which  the  man 
has  passed  on  his  way  thither.  Runaway  lads; 
men  who  have  met  with  crippling  accidents  away 
from  their  homes  and  wish  to  be  returned  to  them; 
men  who  have  definite  promises  of  employment 
in  other  cities  and  are  dependent  where  they  are,— 
all  these  and  many  others  are  manifestly  greatly 
assisted  by  being  sent  to  the  places  to  which  they 

194 


INTER-STATE   MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

wish  to  go,  and  if  they  are  sent  clear  through  to 
their  destinations,  after  the  facts  in  regard  to  their 
means  of  support  upon  arrival  have  been  ascer- 
tained from  reliable  sources,  no  possible  wrong 
will  have  been  done  to  any  one. 

The  "if"  clause  in  the  last  sentence  is,  however, 
a  very  important  one,  and  upon  the  failure  of 
private  citizens  and  public  authorities  to  abide 
by  its  simple  provisions,  hangs  much  of  the  suffer- 
ing and  wrong  connected  with  the  system  of  send- 
ing dependents  about  the  country  as  it  is  at  present 
generally  practiced.  Just  what  the  system  re- 
ferred to  is,  and  how  and  why  it  causes  suffering 
and  degradation,  as  well  as  an  enormous  waste 
of  charitable  funds,  can  perhaps  best  be  illustrated 
by  the  stories  of  a  few  of  the  men  whose  cases  have 
been  considered  in  this  study.  The  ones  chosen 
have  been  selected  almost  at  random  from  among 
more  than  one  hundred  of  the  same  sort,  and  they 
are  by  no  means  extreme  or  unusual. 

A  man  of  seventy-five  lived,  after  his  wife's 
death,  with  a  daughter  in  New  York  state.  Feel- 
ing that  her  brothers  should  share  the  cost  of  the 
old  man's  care,  she  one  day  sent  him  to  the  home 
of  one  of  his  sons  in  ^lichigan.  He  was  unwelcome 
there  and  was  soon  sent  to  another  son  in  the  same 
state.  This  man,  too,  decided  that  his  father  was 
a  burden,  and  the  two  sons  together  hit  upon  the 
plan  of  sending  him  to  a  distant  cousin  in  Chicago. 
The  old  man,  miserably  unhappy  where  he  was, 
readily  consented  to  go,  but  the  sons,  being  short 


HOMELESS    MEN 

of  money,  paid  their  father's  fare  only  to  a  nearby 
city,  and  told  him  to  apply  for  help  on  reaching 
there,  to  the  Masons  to  whose  order  he  belonged. 
The  Masons  assisted  him  to  a  second  city;  Masons 
there  to  another,  and  so  on  until  he  reached  Mus- 
kegon,  Michigan,  where  some  one  shipped  him 
by  boat  to  Chicago.  He  arrived  with  but  12  cents 
in  his  pocket  and  not  the  least  idea  where  his 
cousin  lived  or  whether  or  not  he  would  receive 
him.  Some  friendly  stranger  at  the  dock  brought 
the  old  man  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities  office. 
There  he  admitted,  when  we  questioned  him,  that 
he  had  not  seen  nor  heard  from  his  cousin  in 
thirty  years.  He  was  not  even  certain  that  he 
lived  in  Chicago,  but  had  "heard  so."  He  also 
admitted  that  it  was  quite  possible  that  his  relative 
was  no  longer  living,  as  he  was  somewhat  older 
than  himself  and  "never  was  very  strong."  It 
need  hardly  be  stated  that  we  failed  to  find  this 
cousin  in  Chicago.  We  took  care  of  the  old  man 
for  fifteen  days  while  we  corresponded  with  the 
Masons,  his  sons,  and  his  daughter,  and  at  the  end 
of  that  time,  being  unable  to  secure  a  promise 
of  care  for  him  from  either  of  his  sons,  we  sent  the 
old  man  back  to  New  York  state,  his  legal  resi- 
dence, to  live  with  his  daughter  who  agreed  to 
receive  him.*  The  cost  of  his  care  during  the  fort- 
night he  had  remained  in  Chicago,  of  a  ticket  to 


*One  of  the  Masonic  Homes  in  New  York  state  would  probably 
have  received  this  man  if  his  daughter  had  been  unable  to  care  for 
him. 

.96 


INTER-STATE   MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

his  destination,  and  of  his  expenses  en  route,  were 
all  necessarily  met  by  private  charity. 

One  bitter  December  day  a  feeble,  tottering, 
almost  maudlin  old  man,  who  gave  his  age  as 
ninety-four,  was  brought  to  us  by  the  police. 
"Somebody,"  "somewhere,"  had  bought  him  a 
ticket  and  put  him  on  a  train  for  Chicago.  That 
was  all  he  could  tell  us  except  that  he  had  been 
traveling  around  for  a  long  time  and  had  been  to 
"lots  of  places."  Everybody  had  been  good  to 
him,  he  said,  and  had  given  him  food  and  clothing 
and  railway  tickets.  When  we  tried  to  question 
him  he  told  a  confused  and  disconnected  story  of 
having  once  had  $3,000  which  he  had  lost,  and  of 
brothers  in  Cincinnati,  and  daughters  and  sons 
living  in  a  couple  of  Illinois  cities.  Every  clue 
of  any  sort  which  he  gave  us  we  attempted  to 
trace.  We  learned  that  he  had  wandered  into 
and  out  of  the  Springfield,  Illinois,  Associated 
Charities  office;  that  public  authorities  in  Spring- 
field had  sent  him  to  Joliet,  upon  his  own  state- 
ment that  he  had  a  daughter  there;  that  Joliet 
or  some  other  city  must  have  shipped  him  back  to 
Springfield  again,  for  he  had  been  found  there 
a  few  weeks  later  asking  to  be  sent  to  Peoria. 
Whether  this  was  done  we  could  not  learn.  Alton, 
Illinois,  knew  him,  and  one  or  two  other  communi- 
ties had  assisted  him.  We  finally  found  in  a 
small  village  in  Illinois,  a  brother-in-law  of  the  old 
man,  who  was  unable  to  take  care  of  him,  but 
who  gave  us  the  addresses  of  his  Cincinnati 

197 


HOMELESS   MEN 

relatives.  These,  when  appealed  to,  claimed  also 
to  be  unable  to  care  for  him.  No  one  of  them  knew 
where  his  sons  or  daughters  lived,  nor  why,  nor 
how  long  the  old  man  had  been  wandering  about 
uncared  for.  He  was  not  a  resident  of  Cook 
County,  but  as  we  could  not  learn  where  he  really 
belonged,  the  only  thing  that  could  be  done  for 
him  was  to  place  him  in  the  poorhouse  at  Dunning, 
which  we  did  six  weeks  after  his  arrival  in  Chicago, 
the  cost  of  his  care  in  the  interval  having  been 
met  by  private  charity  through  the  agency  of  the 
Bureau  of  Charities. 

It  is  a  common  custom  for  charity  ticket  trav- 
elers to  secure  letters  from  physicians,  ministers, 
or  others,  addressed  "To  whom  it  may  concern," 
and  requesting  aid  for  the  applicants.  A  young 
epileptic,  a  resident  of  Chicago,  was  referred  to  us 
one  day  by  a  local  county  official,  to  whom  he  had 
applied  for  transportation.  The  man  wished  to 
go  to  New  York  City  and  pulled  out  of  his  pocket 
two  letters  from  Chicago  physicians,  which  testi- 
fied that  he  was  "worthy"  and  unfortunate,  and 
commended  him  to  the  charitable  for  aid.  The 
letters  were  addressed  "To  whom  it  may  concern," 
but  the  man  said  he  intended  to  show  them  par- 
ticularly to  county  commissioners  along  the  way 
so  that  they  would  pass  him  along  without  ques- 
tion. His  only  reason  for  wishing  to  go  to  New 
York  proved  to  be  that  he  expected  a  cousin  from 
Germany  upon  a  boat  which  would  arrive  the 
following  week  and  wanted  to  be  there  to  meet 

.98 


INTER-STATE   MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

him.  Since  we  found  that  this  young  fellow 
averaged  at  least  one  epileptic  seizure  a  day,  even 
when  under  no  special  excitement  or  strain,  it 
was  probably  fortunate  that  we  succeeded  in 
persuading  him  to  give  up  the  trip  to  New  York 
on  our  promise  to  write  asking  someone  in  that 
city  to  look  out  for  the  immigrant  cousin.  One 
of  the  physicians  who  had  given  him  a  letter  for 
begging  purposes  had  done  so  without  learning  the 
man's  real  reason  for  wishing  to  go  to  New  York. 
The  other  said  that  he  had  written  it  out  of  charity, 
because  the  man  had  asked  him  to  and  had  shown 
him  his  colleague's  letter.  He  knew  nothing  of 
the  man  nor  of  the  frequent  seizures  which  would 
have  made  the  long,  uncertain  journey  exceedingly 
dangerous. 

One  of  the  most  pitiful  and  tragic  examples 
of  the  sufferings  caused  by  the  "passing  on" 
system  which  ever  came  to  the  attention  of  the 
Bureau  of  Charities,  was  that  of  another  epileptic, 
a  lad  of  twenty,  who  had  been  raised  in  an  orphan- 
age in  Virginia.  After  leaving  the  institution  he 
went  to  work  but  soon  met  with  an  accident  which 
fractured  his  skull  and  caused  epilepsy.  He  was 
operated  upon,  but  the  attacks  still  continued  with 
great  frequency  and  the  boy  was  no  longer  able 
to  be  self-supporting.  His  only  relative  was  an 
uncle  in  the  state  of  Washington,  and  local  charity 
officials  advised  him  to  go  to  him  and  started  the 
lad  off  on  his  journey  across  the  continent,  with  a 
ticket  only  to  the  nearest  large  city.  Even  before 

199 


HOMELESS    MEN 

he  reached  it,  however,  he  had  a  seizure  and  was 
put  off  the  train  at  a  little  town  along  the  line  of 
the  railway.  The  people  there  cared  for  him  a 
few  days  and  then  raised  money  to  pay  his  way  to 
New  York  City.  At  Newark,  New  Jersey,  he 
was  again  put  off  the  train  and  was  taken  to  a 
hospital.  He  remained  there  for  some  little  time 
and  then  some  one  gave  him  a  ticket  to  Buffalo, 
but  again  he  was  put  off  the  train  before  reaching 
his  destination.  This  happened  over  and  over 
again,  and  when  he  finally  reached  Chicago  he  gave 
us  a  list  of  not  less  than  16  or  18  cities  and  towns 
in  which  he  had  been  harbored  and  given  medical 
and  other  relief,  as  well  as  transportation.  The 
transportation  furnished  to  him  had  generally  been 
towards  the  west,  but  sometimes  it  was  north 
or  south,  or  even  for  short  distances  back  towards 
the  east.  A  great  many  people  had  apparently 
taken  an  interest  in  his  case.  He  had  been  a 
patient  in  private  as  well  as  in  public  hospitals, 
and  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  had  been  again  operated 
upon.  A  physician  in  that  city  had  given  him  a 
ticket  to  Chicago,  but  epileptic  seizures  while  he 
was  crossing  Indiana  had  caused  train  officials  to 
drop  him  off  and  he  had  received  from  county 
authorities  in  that  state  the  aid  which  finally 
enabled  him  to  reach  Chicago. 

The  Bureau  of  Charities  wrote  to  the  Virginia 
city  from  which  he  had  started,  and  to  every  city 
and  town  that  the  boy  claimed  to  have  stopped  in 
while  on  his  way  westward.  We  learned  that  all 

200 


INTER-STATE    MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

of  his  statements  were  true  and  incidentally,  that 
not  one  of  the  many  persons  who  had  contributed 
money  to  enable  the  lad  to  continue  to  travel  at 
such  pitiful  cost,  had  written  to  see  whether  the 
uncle  in  the  western  city  would  be  willing  to  receive 
and  care  for  his  epileptic  nephew  when  he  should 
complete  the  long  journey.  The  Bureau  of  Chari- 
ties took  care  of  this  boy  until  his  uncle  was  heard 
from.  During  his  stay  in  Chicago  he  was  again 
placed  in  a  hospital  for  care.  After  his  dismissal 
he  seemed  much  improved  and  since  the  uncle 
wrote  agreeing  to  care  for  the  lad  if  he  could  be 
sent  to  him,  the  Bureau  purchased  a  ticket  clear 
through  to  his  destination  and  in  addition  arranged 
with  the  railway  company  that  the  boy  was  under 
no  circumstances  to  be  put  off  the  train.  Food 
for  the  trip  was  also  given  him  so  that  he  need  not 
even  leave  the  train  for  a  meal  along  the  way,  and 
a  telegram  was  sent  notifying  his  uncle  to  meet  the 
boy  on  his  arrival.  But  in  spite  of  all  our  precau- 
tions he  never  reached  Washington.  Somewhere 
on  the  plains  he  was  put  off  the  train  and  when 
next  we  heard  of  him  he  was  being  shipped  from 
county  to  county  eastward  through  Kansas.  He 
died  a  few  weeks  later  in  an  epileptic  attack  while 
on  a  train  somewhere  in  Missouri. 

Similar  stories  might  be  told  of  many  of  the 
consumptives  who  are  sent  by  their  friends  to  that 
promised  land  of  health  "The  West,"  but  who, 
as  non-resident  dependents,  are  expelled  from  the 
western  states  and  sent  back  again  toward  the  east. 

20 1 


HOMELESS    MEN 

As  an  example  of  the  pauperization  which  in 
many  cases  results  from  the  indiscriminate  grant- 
ing of  chanty  tickets,  the  following  case  may  be 
cited.  A  man  of  eighty-six  came  to  the  office  one 
day  asking  transportation  to  Pittsburgh.  He  said 
that  he  had  no  relatives  or  friends  in  Pittsburgh, 
but  thought  he  would  be  better  off  there  than  in 
Chicago.  Upon  investigation  we  found  that  this 
man  had  once  been  a  self-respecting  laborer, 
who  had  raised  a  family  and  had  owned  a  home  of 
his  own.  The  home  had  long  since  been  lost  and 
the  children  scattered,  and  when  age  began  to 
interfere  with  his  ready  employment,  he  had  begun 
the  practice  of  going  from  one  city  to  another  in 
the  hope  of  bettering  his  condition.  He  could  not 
recall  and  we  could  not  find  out  how  many  years 
he  had  been  on  the  road,  but  his  complete  pauper- 
ization and  the  strength  of  the  hold  which  the  habit 
of  wandering  had  upon  him,  even  at  eighty-six:; 
showed  that  he  must  have  been  traveling  for  a 
long  period  of  years.  He  said  that  he  had  never 
stolen  a  ride  in  his  life  but  had  traveled  with  his 
way  paid  by  charity,  all  over  America  and  part  of 
Mexico.  He  had  letters  on  his  person  showing 
that  he  had  been  in  New  Orleans  the  previous 
winter;  from  there  he  had  traveled  county  by 
county,  or  from  one  large  city  to  another,  to  Cin- 
cinnati. The  mayor  of  Cincinnati  had  furnished 
him  a  ticket  to  Chicago  and  the  man  asked  us 
to  send  him  to  Pittsburgh.  Hundreds,  possibly 
thousands  of  charitably  intentioned  individuals, 

202 


INTER-STATE    MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

of  private  charitable  agencies,  and  of  public  offi- 
cials, must  have  furnished  the  money  to  pay  the 
fares  of  this  restless  old  mendicant,  solely  upon  his 
own  claim  that  he  would  be  better  off  elsewhere. 
We  refused  to  send  him  to  Pittsburgh  and  finally 
succeeded  in  finding  two  of  his  grown  and  married 
children  in  Iowa,  but  the  old  man  enjoyed  travel- 
ing and  did  not  wish  to  be  sent  to  them.  He  said 
that  if  we  did  not  care  to  pay  his  way  to  Pitts- 
burgh he  "reckoned"  that  he  could  get  there 
somehow, i 

Our  refusal  to  grant  transportation  in  cases 
where  there  was  no  good  reason  for  sending  men 
elsewhere,  never  seemed  to  trouble  professional 
charity  tramps  of  this  type.  I  do  not  recall  an 
instance  in  which  our  failure  to  recommend  one 
of  them  for  charity  rates  delayed  an  applicant 
for  more  than  a  few  days,  if  he  really  wished  to 
leave  the  city.  Ministers,  church  societies,  or 
private  individuals,  always  stood  ready  to  give 
money  for  transportation. 

One  sturdy  beggar,  almost  all  of  whose  readily 
secured  income  was  spent  for  whiskey,  came  from 
San  Francisco  to  Chicago  on  charity  tickets,  and 
asked  us  to  send  him  on  to  Philadelphia.  We 
refused,  and  offered  him  well  paid  work  instead, 
but  he  declined  it  and  a  few  weeks  later  came  to 
the  office  and  boasted  that  he  had  begged  from 
clergymen  in  the  city  enough  to  pay  his  full  fare 
to  Philadelphia.  There  was  no  reason  for  doubt- 
ing his  story,  since  two  clergymen  of  whom  he  had 

203 


HOMELESS    MEN 

asked  aid  had  telephoned  the  office  about  the  man, 
and  one  of  the  two  had  urged  us  to  send  him  East 
because  he  "could  not  find  employment  in  Chicago" 
and  would  "undoubtedly  be  better  off  in  Phila- 
delphia/' 

In  another  case  a  man  who  had  also  come  from 
California,  and  who  was  blind  in  one  eye  and 
paralyzed,  asked  us  to  send  him  to  Rochester, 
New  York.  He  claimed  that  a  wealthy  brother 
of  his  had  died  there  leaving  him  a  large  legacy, 
but  that  he  had  not  received  it  and  must  go  at 
once  to  look  after  his  interests. 

We  found  that  this  man  had  been  almost  a  year 
in  making  the  trip  from  Los  Angeles  to  Chicago. 
He  was  very  dirty,  indecently  ragged,  scarcely 
able  to  get  about,  and  altogether  not  in  any  condi- 
tion to  be  sent  on,  even  if  it  were  necessary.  We 
told  him  that  we  would  write  to  the  Rochester 
Charity  Organization  Society,  asking  them  to  look 
up  the  facts  in  regard  to  his  legacy,  and  to  let  us 
know  if  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to  go  on  to 
that  city.  We  also  promised  him  that  if  they  ad- 
vised that  he  should  be  helped  to  reach  there,  we 
would  pay  his  fare  all  the  way  to  his  destination, 
which  would  in  the  end  save  him  much  more  time 
than  he  would  gain  by  going  on  without  waiting 
for  a  reply  to  our  letter.  We  offered,  in  the  mean- 
time, to  fit  him  out  with  clean  and  decent  clothing; 
to  give  him  an  opportunity  for  baths  and  medical 
care,  both  of  which  he  needed;  and  also  promised 
to  meet  the  expenses  of  his  care  in  Chicago,  until 

204 


INTER-STATE    MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

we  heard  from  Rochester.  He  agreed  to  the  plan, 
but  when  the  reply  to  our  letter  came  it  stated 
that  the  man's  brother,  far  from  being  wealthy, 
had  died  in  poverty,  leaving  nothing  for  the  care 
of  his  own  family.  The  Rochester  society  advised 
us  not  to  send  the  man,  as  he  would  at  once  be 
dependent  upon  public  or  private  charity.  We 
told  him  this,  and  while  we  refused,  under  the 
circumstances,  to  send  him  East  to  certain  de- 
pendence, we  offered  instead  to  send  him  back  to 
his  sister  in  Los  Angeles,  with  whom  we  had 
corresponded,  and  who  was  willing  and  able  to 
care  for  him.  In  five  days  he  could  have  been  in 
Los  Angeles,  where  he  could  have  remained  in 
comparative  comfort  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  but 
he  refused  both  our  offer  and  our  advice,  and  said 
he  would  secure  help  elsewhere  and  push  on  to 
Rochester.  He  reached  there  four  weeks  later 
and  has  ever  since  been  an  inmate  of  the  local 
almshouse.  New  York  had  to  accept  this  man, 
who  was  "passed  on"  to  her  for  care,  because  he 
was  in  such  wretched  physical  condition  upon  his 
arrival  that  he  could  not  have  been  sent  back 
to  California  without  danger  to  life,  t 

A  deformed  cripple  in  a  wheel  chair  arrived  at 
the  Grand  Central  Station  in  Chicago  one  day. 
He  had  spent  the  previous  night  in  an  Indiana 
town,  from  which  the  authorities  had  shipped 
him  to  Chicago,  telling  him  to  apply  for  admission 
to  the  poorhouse  there,  upon  his  arrival.  This 
man  had  with  him  a  number  of  printed  slips 

205 


HOMELESS    MEN 

for  begging  purposes,  which  set  forth  that  he  was 
"a  born  cripple  of  God,  worthy  of  help  from  all 
charitable  people."  He  told  us  that  he  had  been 
traveling  ever  since  his  childhood  and  claimed 
never  to  have  lived  in  any  place  long  enough  to 
acquire  legal  residence.  We  tried  to  trace  his 
most  recent  wanderings,  in  the  hope  of  learning 
something  about  him  which  might  help  us  to  de- 
cide where  he  really  belonged,  but  we  could  not. 
He  may  have  been  born  in  some  poorhouse,  of  a 
mother  who  had  herself  been  a  "passed  on" 
pauper.  Such  cases,  and  they  are  not  rare,  appar- 
ently belong  to  no  particular  state  for  care.  What 
shall  be  done  with  them?  Even  when  they  be- 
long to  no  particular  state,  cannot  some  method 
be  devised  that  shall  be  less  cruel  and  pauperizing 
to  the  unfortunate  dependents,  and  that  shall 
involve  less  waste  of  public  and  private  charitable 
resources  than  does  the  present  one  of  merely 
keeping  them  forever  on  the  move  from  county  to 
county  and  from  state  to  state? 

What  shall  constitute  legal  residence  in  a  county 
or  state?  Under  what  circumstances  may  a  de- 
pendent from  one  community  be  shipped  to  an- 
other? By  what  method  shall  such  transfer  be 
made?  How  can  states  regulate  or  control  the 
private  as  well  as  the  public  granting  of  trans- 
portation to  paupers  or  dependents  who  wish  to 
go  to  communities  upon  which  they  have  no  claim? 
It  is  the  almost  unanimous  opinion  of  social 
workers  and  others  who  have  given  thought  and 

206 


INTER-STATE   MIGRATION    OF    PAUPERS 

attention  to  the  problem  that  these  are  questions 
which  cannot  be  satisfactorily  answered  by  state 
legislation.  No  two  states  will  pass  identical 
laws,  and  unless  the  laws  on  this  subject  are 
uniform  in  all  states,  certain  ones  will  still  be 
imposed  upon  by  others,  and  many  of  the  evils 
of  the  present  system  will  still  persist.  Undoubt- 
edly, what  is  needed  is  a  federal  law,  if  possible 
under  the  constitution,  which  shall  regulate  the 
inter-state  migration  of  paupers  and  dependents. 
Penalties  should  be  imposed  for  sending  depend- 
ents from  one  state  to  another,  except  where  they 
have  a  residence  or  have  friends  who  will  be 
responsible  for  their  care,  or  where  they  will  have 
immediate  paying  employment.  This  law  should 
declare  what  shall  constitute  proof  on  these  points, 
as  well  as  what  constitutes  legal  residence  in  a 
state,  and  federal  officers  should  be  designated  to 
decide  the  questions  arising  under  the  law. 

In  the  meantime,  until  the  need  for  such  a  law 
has  been  more  generally  recognized  throughout 
the  country,  and  until  it  has  been  passed  and  put 
into  effect,  individual  states  should  protect  them- 
selves by  passing  laws  excluding  non-resident 
dependents;  and  citizens  may  do  much  to  lessen 
the  evil  by  refusing  to  contribute  towards  the 
purchase  of  railroad  tickets  for  any  applicant  until 
they  have  assurance  from  the  point  of  destination 
that  the  person  who  asks  transportation  will  be 
cared  for  there;  and  also  by  refusing  to  contribute 
to  any  charity  society  which  sends  unfortunates 

207 


HOMELESS   MEN 

about  the  country  without  investigation  and  with- 
out purpose. 

NOTE. — Over  four  hundred  organizations  and  agencies  of 
various  sorts,  including  poor  relief  agents,  mayors  of  cities, 
charity  organization  and  relief  societies,  Jewish  charities, 
institutions  for  dependents,  have  within  the  last  few  years 
entered  into  a  voluntary  contract  to  abide  by  the  set  of  rules 
approved  by  a  committee  of  the  National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction  entitled  "Rules  Governing  the  Issuance 
of  Charity  Transportation."  This  contract  binds  the  signers 
not  to  furnish  transportation  to  any  applicant  until  they  have 
received  proof  that  the  applicant  will  have  care  or  employ- 
ment at  his  destination  or  (in  the  case  of  poor  relief  officials) 
that  he  has  legal  residence  at  destination.  Also  that  trans- 
portation in  any  such  case  shall  be  given  through  to  destination. 
The  signers  may  write  or  wire  (a  telegraphic  code  has  been 
prepared)  to  each  other  in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  proof. 
Disputes  between  signers  are  referred  for  decision  to  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  National  Con- 
ference. Societies  or  officials  interested  in  this  matter  and 
those  who  may  wish  to  have  the  benefit  of  this  agreement, 
should  write  to  the  Charity  Organization  Department,  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  105  East  22nd  Street,  New  York  City, 
which  is  acting  as  agent  for  the  Transportation  Committee 
of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction. 


208 


CHAPTER  XII 
CONFIRMED  WANDERERS  OR  "TRAMPS" 

A  .MOST  all  "tramps"  are  "homeless  men," 
but  by  no  means  are  all  homeless  men 
tramps.  The  homeless  man  may  be  an 
able-bodied  workingman,  without  a  family;  he 
may  be  a  runaway  boy,  a  consumptive  temporarily 
stranded  on  his  way  to  a  health  resort,  an  irrespon- 
sible feeble-minded  or  insane  man,  a  professional 
beggar,  or  a  criminal, — but  unless  he  is  also  a_wan- 
derer,  he  is  not  a  "tramp."  It  can,  therefore,  only 
lead  to  confusion  in  any  discussion  of  the  so-called 
"tramp  problem"  of  today  if  homeless  men  of  the 
types  mentioned  and  of  the  many  others  that  may 
be  found  on  the  railroads  or  in  the  cheap  lodging 
houses  are  classed  as  tramps  when  they  have  as  yet 
no  confirmed  habits  of  wandering. 

The  organization  of  modern  industry  leads  to  the 
massing  of  thousands  of  nominally  homeless  work- 
ingmen  in  the  large  cities.  In  order  to  avail  them- 
selves of  opportunities  for  employment  which 
may  occur  in  any  part  of  the  country,  these  men 
must  be  able  to  shift  quickly  from  one  place  to  an- 
other; and  so  long  as  they  can,  either  by  stealing 
their  way  or  by  paying  small  fees  to  brakemen, 
'4  209 


HOMELESS   MEN 

reach  their  changing  places  of  employment  with 
little  or  no  personal  expense,  it  is  unlikely  that  they 
will  voluntarily  pay  the  regular  rates.  Hundreds 
of  these  workingmen  may,  therefore,  be  found  beat- 
ing their  way  about  the  country,  and  at  certain  sea- 
sons when  large  numbers  of  them  are  needed  at  once 
in  a  particular  section  of  the  country,  they  have 
been  known  to  take  entire  possession  of  a  train, 
swarming  onto  it  in  great  numbers  and  over- 
powering and  controlling  the  engineer  and  other 
employes.  More  often,  however,  they  are  con- 
tent to  steal  or  bribe  their  way  to  their  destination, 
individually  and  without  resort  to  force.  Rail- 
way officials  admit  that  in  estimating  the  number 
of  "tramps"  that  they  carry  in  the  course  of  the 
year  they  include  thousands  of  men  whom  they 
know  to  be  bona  fide  workmen.  These  seasonal 
and  shifting  workmen,  however,  are  not  tramps 
and  should  not  fairly  be  classed  as  such. 
Neither  should  other  men  who,  with  a  legitimate 
purpose,  are  on  their  way  to  known  destinations, 
nor  should  those  others  who  are  only  accidentally 
or  quite  temporarily  upon  the  railroads  be  so 
classed.  These  men  may  and  unquestionably  do 
present  many  problems  to  the  railroads  and  to  so- 
ciety at  large;  but  so  long  as  they  have  as  yet 
no  firmly  established  habits  of  wandering;  so 
long  as  it  is,  so  to  speak,  the  mere  accessibility 
of  the  railroads  themselves  which  accounts  for 
their  presence  upon  them,  they  are  not  as  yet 
tramps,  and  the  problems  they  present  are  mainly 

210 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR   "TRAMPS" 

of  prevention  rather  than  of  cure.  These  problems 
differ  greatly  from  those  presented  by  the  true 
1 1  amps, — by  the  men  in  whom  habits  of  wandering 
are  fixed  and  confirmed  and  who  probably  will  not 
permanently  withdraw  from  the  road  until  they 
are  compelled  by  force  of  law  to  do  so. 

However,  while  it  is  true  that  in  the  beginning 
there  are  very  real  differences  between  homeless 
men  of  the  types  referred  to  and  true  tramps, 
these  differences  soon  disappear  unless  the  men 
who  are  temporarily  upon  the  road  are  soon  with- 
drawn from  it;  for  although  a  certain  proportion 
of  tramps  step  directly  from  normal  social  life  into 
this  other  and  abnormal  mode  of  existence,  by 
far  the  larger  proportion  of  them  are  recruited  from 
among  homeless  men;  namely,  from  among  men 
or  boys  who  have  already  for  some  reason  left 
their  own  family  circles  and  have  not  yet  returned 
to  them  or  joined  others.  Such  homeless  men 
drift  into  tramp  life  not  because  of  an  instinct  to 
wander  which  in  the  first  instance  causes  them  to 
seek  the  life,  but  because,  having  set  out  to  find 
work  or  health,  or  having  only  accidentally  drifted 
onto  the  road,  they  become  accustomed  to  this 
manner  of  living  and  are  later  unwilling  or  unable 
to  abandon  it.  The  following  case  is  a  very 
typical  one: 

A.  B.  was  a  printer,  aged  35;  married  and  with 
four  children.  He  had  a  good  work  record  in  his 
home  city;  he  drank  occasionally  but  not  to  excess 
and  he  was  paying  in  instalments  for  a  home  of 

211 


HOMELESS    MEN 

his  own  when  his  wife,  quite  suddenly,  died. 
Being  unable  to  find  a  capable  housekeeper  he 
soon  broke  up  his  home  and  placed  his  children  in 
institutions.  In  his  intolerable  loneliness  follow- 
ing this  action,  he  thought  that  he  would  be 
happier  if  he  could  go  to  some  new  place  and  find 
employment.  He  set  out  with  this  intention,  but 
failing  to  secure  work,  and  even  more  restless  and 
lonely  in  this  city  than  in  his  own,  he  went  on  to 
another.  Still  not  finding  work  he  went  to  a  third 
city,  in  the  meantime  drinking  considerably  and  be- 
coming daily  more  shabby  in  appearance.  When 
his  money  was  exhausted  he  began  to  beat  his 
way  from  city  to  city,  constantly  associating  with 
tramps  both  on  the  railroads  and  in  the  cheap 
lodging  houses.  Within  a  few  months  he  no 
longer  even  made  a  pretense  of  seeking  work  but 
frankly  dropped  to  the  level  of  the  men  with  whom 
the  traveled,  i 

When  we  knew  him  this  man  had  been  drifting 
and  wandering  aimlessly  about  the  country  for 
four  years.  He  was  sodden  with  whiskey  and  so 
degraded  physically,  mentally,  and  morally  that  it 
was  difficult  to  believe  he  had  ever  been  the  clean 
and  useful  citizen,  with  a  family  and  a  home  of 
his  own,  which  correspondence  with  his  home  city 
proved  him  to  have  been  less  than  five  years  be- 
fore. We  did  our  best  to  save  this  man  who 
had  once  been  so  well  worth  saving,  but  we  did  not 
succeed.  In  the  course  of  his  wanderings  he  had 
broken  his  left  arm  and,  because  of  the  condition 

212 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

of  his  system  through  the  use  of  whiskey,  the  bone 
could  not  be  made  to  knit,  and  he  could  never 
hope  to  recover  the  use  of  the  arm.  In  spite  of 
this  handicap,  however,  we  felt  that  if  he  could  be 
persuaded  to  give  up  his  habits  of  drink  and  of 
wandering,  the  man  might  again  possibly  become 
self-supporting.  We  appealed  to  him  through 
his  love  for  the  children  he  had  abandoned,  and 
he  agreed  to  stop  tramping  and  to  take  a  drink 
cure.  We  furnished  him  with  new  clothing  and 
he  went  to  an  institution  where  he  remained  for 
about  two  weeks;  then  he  left  and  wandered  onto 
the  road  again  without  returning  to  the  Bureau 
office. 

This  is  one  case.  Scores  of  others  similar  to  it 
might  be  cited,  which  would  show  how  readily 
able-bodied  and  capable  workingmen  degenerate 
into  tramps  when  once  they  begin  to  steal  rides 
and  wander  from  place  to  place.  And,  as  before 
stated,  the  workingman  who  leaves  his  home  to 
seek  employment  is  by  no  means  the  only  man  that 
the  fatal  accessibility  of  the  railroads  finally  con- 
verts into  a  tramp.  The  seasonal  laborer  who  in 
traveling  to  and  from  his  changing  places  of  em- 
ployment associates  with  tramps,  in  the  end  may 
travel  more  than  he  works.  The  runaway  boy, 
who  repeats  the  experiment  of  tramping  too  often, 
becomes  enamored  of  the  life  and  never  returns 
to  his  home.  The  consumptive,  still  ostensibly 
seeking  health,  wanders  until  he  dies.  The  feeble- 
minded man  drifts  until  he  no  longer  remembers 

213 


HOMELESS    MEN 

where  he  really  belongs.  In  fact,  the  tramp  army 
is  so  continually  growing  by  these  accretions 
that  any  estimate  of  the  number  of  true  tramps 
upon  the  road  at  any  given  time  must  be  a  mere 
guess.  The  body  is  not  static  and  a  census  is 
impossible.  At  just  what  point  the  bona  fide 
workman  who  left  his  home  at  the  beginning  of  a 
year  seeking  work,  and  who  at  the  end  of  it  is  a 
tramp,  changed  from  one  to  the  other,  no  one  can 
say  with  certainty — least  of  all  the  man  himself, 
who  will  probably  claim  to  be  the  workman  long 
after  it  is  evident  to  others  that  he  is,  in  fact,  the 
tramp. 

Basing  their  estimates  upon  figures  furnished 
by  the  railroads,  some  recent  writers  upon  va- 
grancy have  stated  that  there  are  probably  not 
fewer  than  500,000  "tramps"  in  America.  Ed- 
mond  Kelly,  in  his  book  entitled  The  Elimination 
of  the  Tramp,  states:* 

"This  figure  (500,000)  is  calculated  by  taking 
as  a  basis  the  number  of  tramps  killed  on  the  rail- 
roads every  year  and  multiplying  this  number  by 
the  figure  representing  the  proportion  of  trainmen 
killed  in  the  year  to  the  total  number  of  trainmen 
employed.  The  number  of  trespassers  killed 
annually  on  American  railroads  exceeds  the  com- 
bined total  of  passengers  and  trainmen  killed 
annually." 

The  same  basis  of  estimate  is  used  by  Orlando 

*  Kelly,  Edmond:  The  Elimination  of  the  Tramp,  New  York, 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1908.  Footnote,  p.  i. 

214 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

F.  Lewis  in  Vagrancy  in  the  United  States:* 
"The  number  of  trespassers  killed  annually  on 
American  railroads  exceeds  the  combined  total  of 
passengers  and  trainmen  killed  annually.  From 
1901  to  1905,  inclusive,  23,964  trespassers  were 
killed  and  25,236  trespassers  were  injured.  From 
one-half  to  three-quarters  of  the  trespassers  were 
vagrants.  The  annual  totals  of  the  killed  and 
injured  show  no  signs  of  decreasing." 

It  is  possible  that  so  large  an  army  of  nominally 
homeless  men  and  boys  may  be  traveling  about 
the  country  in  one  way  and  another, — some  steal- 
ing rides,  some  earning  them  on  cattle  trains, 
some  riding  on  charity  tickets,  and  some  few 
paying  their  way, — but  it  is  only  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  these 
men,  as  of  the  rest  of  the  traveling  public,  are 
taking  but  a  single  trip  on  the  railroads  or  that 
they  are  traveling  directly  to  their  destinations, 
with  genuine  objects  in  view.  To  class  them  all 
as  tramps  is  not  only  unfair  to  the  men,  but,  as 
before  said,  confuses  the  discussion  regarding 
either  "homeless  men"  or  "tramps." 

For  whatever  his  other  characteristics  may  be, 
whether  or  not  he  begs  and  whether  or  not  he 
works,  the  one  distinguishing  mark  of  the  true 
tramp  is  that  he  wanders.  His  propensity  to 
wander  and  not  his  habit  of  begging  nor  his  idle- 
"ness  makes  the  problem  of  the  tramp  a  harder 

*  Lewis,  Orlando  F.:  Vagrancy  in  the  United  States,  p.  7.  Pri- 
vately printed. 

215 


HOMELESS    MEN 
TABLE  X.— GENERAL  DATA  CONCERNING  220  TRAMPS 


A.  AGES,  BY  GROUPS 

10  to  19 41 

20  to  29 53 

301039 46 

40  to  50 32 

50  to  60 19 

60  to  70 13 

70  or  over 14 

Not  known 2 


Total 


220 


C.  NATIVITY 

American   (including  5    Ne- 
groes)    167 

German 14 

English 14 

Scandinavian 5 

Irish 5 

Other 13 

Not  known .  .                2 


B.  CONJUGAL  CONDITION 

Single.  .  .  ." 169 

Married 8 

Widowed 24 

Divorced 2 

Separated 17 

Total 220 

D.  AMOUNT  OF  SELF-SUPPORT 
Usually  self-supporting....     77 

Not  at  all 96 

Not  known 47 


Total 


220 


E.  VERIFICATION  OF  STORIES* 

True 131 

False 54 

Unverifiable 35 


Total 


220 


Total 


220 


one  to  solve  than  that  of  the  beggar  or  the  de- 
pendent, or  the  homeless  man  of  any  type  who  is 
willing  to  remain  in  a  particular  locality., 

If  we  class  as  tramps,  then,  only  the  men  in 
this  thousand  who  appeared  to  be  thoroughly  con- 
firmed in  habits  of  wandering  at  the  time  that  we 

*  In  38  of  the  54  false  and  in  1 6  of  the  35  un verifiable  cases,  or  in 
54  cases  altogether,  investigation  and  later  acquaintance  with  these 
men  gave  us  a  considerable  knowledge  concerning  them.  Concerning 
35  men  we  knew  very  little  beyond  such  facts  as  to  age,  physical  con- 
dition, nationality,  etc.,  as  we  could  gain  in  the  original  interviews,  and 
a  few  other  facts,  regarding  their  habits  of  drinking,  begging  or  wan- 
dering, which  the  men  admitted  or  we  learned  from  lodging  house 
keepers  or  often  from  men  who  knew  them  casually.  Where  they 
had  come  from  or  why  they  had  originally  set  out  were  points  that 
we  could  not  ascertain  in  some  16  per  cent  of  the  tramp  cases. 

2l6 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS*' 

knew  them,  but  220,  or  less  than  one-fourth  of 
the  whole  number,  merit  the  name. 

Like  the  beggars,  these  220  men  were  from  all 
classes  of  society  and  represented  almost  every 
degree  of  education  and  training.  A  much  larger 
percentage  of  this  group  were  college  men  or  men 
and  boys  from  very  good  homes,  than  was  the  case 
with  the  beggars.  In  other  respects,  too,  they 
differed  from  the  men  of  that  group,  fewer  being 
criminal  and  more  being,  in  a  sense,  only  acci- 
dentally upon  the  road.  "Degenerate  workmen" 
among  tramps  were  very  numerous,  not  only 
those  men  previously  described  who  had  set  out 
to  find  work  and  had  deteriorated  during  the 
search  for  it,  but  also  seasonal  laborers  (there  were 
21  of  these)  and  a  considerable  number  of  ped- 
dlers, traveling  salesmen,  soldiers  and  other  men 
the  nature  of  whose  employment  had  tended  to 
confirm  them  in  habits  of  wandering. 

The  nationality  of  these  tramps  is  predominantly 
American.  If  the  five  Negroes  in  this  group  are 
included  with  the  white  Americans  fully  76  per 
cent  of  the  whole  number  listed  are  native  born. 
In  the  entire  group  of  the  thousand  homeless  men 
only  62  per  cent  are  American.  I  n  ages  the  tramps 
ranged  from  mere  lads  to  men  in  the  nineties, 
but  almost  43  per  cent  were  under  the  age  of 
thirty.  In  the  group  of  one  thousand  but  35  per 
cent  were  under  thirty. 

A  comparison  of  the  tables  giving  the  conjugal 
condition  of  the  tramps  and  of  the  thousand  home- 

217 


HOMELESS   MEN 

less  men,  shows  that  the  percentage  of  men  widowed, 
divorced,  or  separated  from  their  wives  is  slightly 
greater  in  the  former  group  than  in  the  latter. 

Physically,  the  tramps  varied  from  perfectly 
able-bodied  young  men  to  pitifully  diseased  and 
decrepit  old  ones.*  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
proportion  of  the  crippled  and  maimed  among 
the  tramps  is  high.  Accidents  while  tramping 
were  responsible  for  much  of  this  crippling.t 

According  to  their  habits  of  tramping  the  men 
in  this  group  fall  into  three  fairly  distinct  classes; 
for  exactly  as  men  who  drink  to  excess  may  do  so 
continuously,  or  only  at  certain  more  or  less 
regular  times,  or  periodically,  with  intervals  of 
months  or  even  of  years  between  their  defections 
from  sobriety,  so  tramps  in  their  wandering  are  of 
similar  habits.  Some  wander  continuously,  others 
only  at  particular  times  or  seasons,  and  still  others 
periodically  with  long  intervals  of  entirely  normal 
life  between  the  attacks. 

As  an  example  of  the  first  named  type  of  wan- 
derer— the  man  who  tramps  unceasingly — the 
following  case  may  be  given: 

A  young  deaf  mute,  with  an  arm  missing,  came 
to  the  office  one  morning  and  asked  for  transporta- 
tion to  St.  Paul.  He  knew  no  one  in  that  city  and 
would  have  no  means  of  support  upon  his  arrival 


*  For  data  concerning  the  physical  and  mental  condition  of  the 
men,  see  Appendix  A,  Table  26,  p.  304. 

t  See  Chapter  IV,  The  Crippled  and  Maimed  and  Chapter  V,  In- 
dustrial Accidents  in  Relation  to  Vagrancy. 

218 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

there.  For  this  reason  we  refused  to  send  him. 
Instantly  he  changed  his  request  to  one  for  a 
ticket  to  a  city  in  central  Illinois;  then  to  one  in 
Iowa,  then  to  one  "anywhere  out  West/'  writing 
in  explanation,  "I've  just  come  from  the  East." 
He  was  impatient  of  questions,  but  in  addition 
to  a  few  other  facts  we  finally  learned  that  he  had 
been  in  Chicago  less  than  three  hours;  neverthe- 
less he  wrote  on  a  piece  of  paper,  "  I  must  go  on; 
I  cannot  stay;  I  have  nothing  to  do  so  I  travel 
always.  I  do  not  stay  anywhere.  I  must  go 
before  night."  We  refused  to  assist  him  to  "  travel 
always,"  offering  instead  several  different  forms  of 
aid  if  he  would  remain  in  Chicago,  but  he  would  not 
consider  staying  and  I  have  little  doubt  soon 
succeeded  in  begging  from  someone  an  amount 
sufficient  to  purchase  a  ticket  to  "somewhere." 

The  "  I  have  nothing  to  do"  may  have  explained 
in  large  part  the  restlessness  of  this  particular 
man,  but  we  dealt  at  the  office  with  a  number  of 
men,  and  of  women  too,  who  were  able-bodied 
and  who  might  have  worked,  but  who  possessed, 
as  this  deaf  mute  did,  a  veritable  mania  for  wan- 
dering. And  usually,  as  in  his  case,  they  were 
quite  indifferent  as  to  the  direction  they  should 
take  or  the  method  of  their  going  if  only  they 
could  go  somewhere  and  at  once.  Very  rarely 
could  we  persuade  a  tramp  of  this  extreme  type 
to  remain  in  the  city  even  for  a  single  day  to  re- 
ceive needed  medical  treatment  or  for  any  other 
reason,  even  though  he  himself  might  recognize 

219 


HOMELESS    MEN 

and  admit  the  wisdom  of  our  request.  "  I  must 
go  on  before  night/'  would  still  be  the  dogged  and 
unreasoning  reply  to  all  our  argument  or  entreaty. 

Nothing  but  forcible  arrest,  to  be  followed  prob- 
ably in  most  cases  by  medical  as  well  as  correc- 
tional treatment,  can  bring  to  a  halt  these  half- 
insane  victims  of  restlessness.  Our  experience 
at  the  office,  however,  fortunately  indicated  that 
by  no  means  all  the  men  who  may  be  classed 
as  continual  wanderers  are  of  quite  so  extreme  a 
type  as  this;  and  the  total  number  of  men  who 
tramp  without  resting  I  believe  to  be  far  smaller 
than  that  of  the  second  type  of  tramps, — those 
who  wander  only  at  special  times  or  seasons, 
notably  in  the  dull  periods  of  their  trades  or  in 
the  spring  and  summer  months  of  the  year. 

Among  these  men  who  wander  only  at  certain 
times  must  be  included  the  great  majority  of 
boy  tramps.  In  this  group,  too,  are  many  of  the 
scores  and  hundreds  of  homeless  men  (other  than 
seasonal  workmen)  who  crowd  the  city  lodging 
houses  in  winter  and  who  disappear  from  them  as 
if  by  magic  in  summer.  Many  inmates  of  poor- 
houses,  too,  leave  these  institutions  in  the  spring- 
time to  enjoy  the  freedom  of  life  on  the  road  during 
the  mild  weather.  Always  in  April,  in  Chicago, 
or  when  the  season  was  late,  in  May,  we  would 
have  for  a  few  days  or  a  fortnight  a  noticeable 
increase  in  the  number  of  homeless  men  appli- 
cants at  the  district  office.  In  time  we  learned 
to  recognize  this  as  the  signal  that  the  annual 

220 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

exodus  of  tramps  from  the  county  poorhouse 
had  begun.  In  the  late  fall  the  same  men  (who 
were  generally  crippled,  old,  or  diseased)  would 
again  apply  for  aid  and  would  admit  that  they  had 
been  "tramping"  in  the  interval.  The  first  snow 
of  November  sent  them  back  to  the  shelter  of  the 
poorhouse  and  we  did  not  see  them  again  until 
the  following  spring. 

The  third  and  psychologically,  perhaps,  the  most 
interesting  type  of  tramp,  is  the  periodical  wan- 
derer. In  this  class  may  be  listed  the  tramp- 
workmen  with  whom  many  employers  of  labor, 
particularly  in  the  mill  cities  of  the  East,  are 
familiar.  These  men,  who  are  often  experts 
in  their  special  lines,  will  remain  at  one  place  for 
several  months  or  even  for  a  year  or  more,  but 
when  the  wanderlust  attacks  them,  will  go  on 
"sprees"  of  tramping,  not  dissimilar,  in  many 
respects,  from  those  of  periodic  drinkers;  for 
while  the  lust  to  wander  is  upon  them,  families 
are  neglected,  savings  are  spent,  and  all  responsi- 
bility is  thrown  to  the  winds.  Among  the  families 
that  we  came  in  touch  with  in  the  district  office, 
there  were  a  number  in  which  the  man  was  a 
periodic  deserter,  and  several  of  these  men  ad- 
mitted, when  questioned,  that  they  "took  to 
the  road  for  awhile"  whenever  they  abandoned 
their  families.  One  man,  a  very  fine  worker  and, 
when  at  home,  a  kind  husband  and  father,  de- 
serted his  family  at  regular  intervals  just  six  years 
apart.  His  wife  was  forced  to  apply  to  the 

221 


HOMELESS   MEN 

Bureau  for  aid  during  his  third  absence  from  home, 
because  continuous  illness  had  exhausted  the 
savings  her  husband  had  left  with  her,  which  he 
had  supposed  would  carry  the  family  through  until 
his  return.  This  man  came  to  the  office  later  and 
paid  back  the  money  we  had  advanced  to  his  wife. 
He  spoke  shame-facedly  of  his  wandering,  but 
said  that  when  the  attacks  came  it  was  useless  for 
him  to  try  to  fight  them.  He  simply  "had  to  go." 
The  late  Josiah  Flynt  was  apparently  a  tramp  of 
this  periodic  type  and  there  are  more  such  men 
upon  the  road  than  is  generally  realized, — men 
of  ability  and  even,  like  Flynt,  of  cultivation,  who 
at  certain  times  seem  utterly  unable  to  control 
an  abnormal  restlessness  which  urges  them  to 
forsake  the  comforts  and  conventions  of  their  own 
homes  for  the  freedom  from  responsibility,  the 
novelty,  and  the  varied  interests  of  life  on  the 
"open  road." 

The  newspaper  and  stage  caricatures  of  the 
tramp  which  invariably  represent  him  as  a  dirty 
and  idle  beggar  must  be  in  large  part  responsible 
for  the  popular  idea  that  he  is  a  man  who  never 
works  and  who  lives  wholly  by  begging.  A  study 
of  the  history  of  the  men  in  this  group  does  not 
confirm  this  common  supposition.  Thirty-five 
per  cent  of  them  were  found  to  be  generally  self- 
supporting,  or  at  least  not  dependent  upon  the 
public  for  support.  Several  owned  property  and 
had  independent  incomes  of  their  own;  not  a  few 

222 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR   "TRAMPS" 

others  were  "remittance  men,"  supported  by 
regular  allowances  from  relatives  at  a  distance. 
These  allowances,  in  some  cases,  were  granted 
with  the  distinct  understanding  that  they  were 
at  once  to  cease  if  the  men  returned  to  their  homes. 
In  one  instance  we  found  that  a  tramp  of  seventy 
had  been  thus  supported  for  thirty-five  years. 
Certain  other  men  were  pensioners  upon  the  less 
stated  bounty  of  relatives.  One  reprobate  young 
Englishman  of  good  family,  whom  we  knew  for 
some  time,  showed  us  letters  from  his  mother  and 
sister,  the  contents  of  which  proved  that  he  had 
received  $2500  from  them  within  eighteen  months. 
In  reply  to  a  letter  which  the  office  wrote  to  his 
mother,  she  sent  $100  more  in  order  that  we  might 
pay  for  her  son's  care  in  an  institution  for  the  cure 
of  drunkenness. 

Tramps  like  these  rarely  if  ever  beg  of  strangers, 
although  they  often  do  not  hesitate  to  apply  for 
"loans"  to  men  from  their  own  colleges  or  fra- 
ternities, or  to  others  who  are  acquainted  with 
their  families  at  home  and  may  therefore  be 
relied  upon  for  help  in  emergency.  But  in  addi- 
tion to  these  men  with  specially  provided  incomes 
there  are  among  tramps  a  good  many  others  who 
enjoy  tramping  but  who  have  an  inborn  repug- 
nance to  begging  and  who  will  not  do  so  under 
any  condition.  There  are  others  who  claim  to 
prefer  to  be  independent  and  who  generally  are  so, 
but  who  will  beg  when  they  cannot  readily  find 
employment. 

223 


HOMELESS    MEN 

From  the  nature  of  the  life  they  lead,  the  form  of 
work  which  tramps  most  often  choose,  if  they  work 
at  all,  is  casual  labor;  although  some  of  them  peddle 
and  others  are  in  the  habit  of  taking  almost  any 
sort  of  position  which  is  available  when  they  need 
it,  and  in  which  the  work  is  not  too  heavy,  hold- 
ing it  for  but  a  week  or  two  and  then  wander- 
ing on  again  until  the  amount  they  have  earned  is 
exhausted.  This  last  was  the  habit  of  one  tramp 
who  had  graduated  from  an  eastern  university 
and  had  then  taken  Hebrew  and  Sanscrit  at  the 
University  of  Chicago.  He  usually  sought  employ- 
ment in  bakeries  or  restaurants,  and  at  the  time 
that  we  knew  him  had  lived  in  this  way  for  several 
years,  apparently  making  no  use  whatever  of  his 
superior  education. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  220  tramps,  however, 
—96,*  or  43  per  cent  of  the  group, — were  not  self- 
supporting,  and  unquestionably  merited  their  wide- 
spread reputation  for  idleness  and  for  utter  disin- 
clination to  work.  Thirty-eight  of  the  96  were 
men  who  had  never  worked  in  their  lives;  or,  differ- 
ently stated,  over  17  per  cent  of  the  whole  group 
of  220  men  were  of  the  socially  neglected  type 
described  at  length  in  Chapter  X.f  Of  the  re- 
maining 1 24  tramps,  77  were  generally  self-support- 
ing, and  it  is  not  definitely  known  whether  the 
other  47  were  or  not. 

•See  Table  X,  p.  216. 

t  See  pages  179-184.  This  docs  not  include  runaway  boys  of 
school  age 

224 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS"  \ 

So  many  temperamental  and  environmental 
Lie  tors  which  must  have  played  important  parts 
in  the  careers  of  the  tramps  are  necessarily  un- 
known to  the  writer,  that  it  is  not  practicable  to 
attempt  to  state  just  what  number  of  men  had  left 
their  homes  for  one  particular  reason  or  another, 
but  what  some  of  these  reasons  were — both  ac- 
cording to  the  men  themselves  and  as  found  by 
investigation — it  may  be  worth  while  to  note. 

(1)  RESTLESSNESS.     Commonest  of  all,  especi- 
ally among  the  younger  men  and  boys,  was  what 
they  themselves  called  "just  restlessness" — that 
abnormal  craving  to  see  the  world  and  the  people 
who  inhabit  it  that  the  Germans  have  so  aptly 
termed  die  Wanderlust^   Approximately  a  third  of 
the  22CTtramps  were  men  who  seemed  in  the  be- 
ginning to  have  left  their  homes  for  this  reason 
alone.     Many  of  them  stated  unequivocally  that 
no  other  or    contributory   reason    existed;   that 
they  were  not  unhappy,  nor  overworked,  nor  in 
difficulties  of  any   kind,   and   that   nothing  but 
this  restlessness  had  started  them  to  wandering. 
Letters  to  their  homes,  in  many  cases,  brought 
replies   which   confirmed   the   men's   statements, 
but  on  the  other  hand  a  good  rnany  men  not 
included   in   this  one-third   gave   restlessness   as 
their  excuse  for  wandering  when  we  found  upon 
investigation  that  other  and  very  pertinent  reasons 
for  their  leaving  home  had  in  fact  been  present. 

(2)  To  SEEK  WORK.     A  second  reason  which 
was  frequently  given,  but  which,  like  the  first,  ? 

'5  225 


HOMELESS    MEN 


was  not  always  the  truth,  was  to  look  for  em- 
ployment, the  men  claiming  to  be  unable  to  secure 
it  in  their  own  towns  or  cities.  Unquestionably, 
a  great  many  homeless  men  are  honest  searchers 
for  work,  but  industrial  conditions  alone  cannot 
be  held  responsible  for  all  the  wandering  about  in 
search  of  work  that  is  done  by  men  who  plead  the 
lack  of  it  in  their  own  town  as  their  excuse  for 
starting  out.  Not  only  have  some  of  these  men 
voluntarily  left  good  positions  because  of  mere 
restlessness,  but  a  number  of  others  are  seeking 
work  in  strange  cities  because  of  excellent  reasons 
which  prevent  them  from  securing  it  where  they 
are  well  known. 

(3)  FAILURE  AT  HOME.  In  fact,  a  third  reason 
for  their  first  setting  out  from  home,  which  was 
admitted  by  a  number  of  men,  was  that  they  had 
made  failures  of  their  lives  up  to  that  point  and 
wished  to  start  anew  in  other  communities.  A 
vague  "somewhere  out  West"  was  usually  the 
goal  they  sought,  but  of  the  men  who  applied  to 
us,  not  one  had  succeeded  in  his  hope  of  establish- 
ing a  new  and  better  career  and  almost  all  were 
rapidly  sinking  lower  and  lower  in  the  social  scale. 
Indulgence  in^drink  was  more  often  than  anything 
else  the  reason  for  the  failure  of  these  men  in 
their  own  towns  or  cities  and  continued  to  be 
the  cause  of  it.  Two  or  three  drug-users  had 
similarly  wrecked  their  prospects  at-home  and 
taken  to  tramping,  and  in  a  few  other  cases  en- 
tanglements with  women  or  other  scandals  which 

226 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

had  become  known  and  had  affected  their  opportu- 
nities for  the  future,  had  led  men  to  set  out  upon 
the  road.  In  many  of  these  cases  the  psychologi- 
cal effect  upon  the  men  of  disgrace,  combined,  as 
it  was,  with  the  sudden  and  enforced  breaking  of 
all  the  tics  which  had  linked  them  to  normal  so- 
ciety in  their  own  communities,  was  very  marked. 
I  he  idea  that  no  one  would  now  know  or  care 
whether  they  made  a  success  of  the  remainder  of 
their  lives,  tended  to  make  them  feel  that  effort 
was  not  worth  while  and  caused  them  to  deterio- 
rate with  startling  rapidity. 

(4)  INEFFICIENCY.  Still  another  form  of  "fail- 
ure at  home"  which  sent  men  onto  the  road  was 
financial  failure,  by  which  I  do  not  mean  the  large 
and  spectacular  failures  of  ill-advised  business 
ventures  but  the  pitiful  and  far  more  common 
failures  of  well-intentioned  but  inefficient  men. 
Such  men,  even  when  long  confirmed  in  the  habit 
of  wandering,  would  almost  invariably  ask  us 
for  work,  and  would  explain, — some  of  them 
apathetically  and  some  bitterly, — how  they  had 
never  had  a  chance;  how  other  men  always  got 
the  advances  while  they  themselves  were  the  first 
to  be  laid  off  when  business  became  slack.  When 
asked  what  sort  of  work  they  wanted  or  were 
able  to  do,  they  would  reply,  "Oh,  any  kind  of 
work  whatever;  I'm  willing  to  do  anything  that 
is  honest,"  but  when  we  tried  to  fit  them  into 
particular  places,  employers  found  them  to  be 
sjupid  or  untrained,  or  for  some  other  reason 

227 


HOMELESS    MEN 

incapable  of  effective  work.  Men  of  this  type 
are  much  to  be  pitied  and  if  by  some  means  places 
which  they  were  really  capable  of  filling  could  be 
found  for  them,  many  might  become  self-support- 
ing; but  the  charity  worker  who  has  the  practical 
task  of  trying  to  discover  such  positions  for  them 
feels  at  times  that  few  homeless  men  who  are 
mentally  normal  present  a  harder  problem  for 
solution  than  do  these  who  are  respectable,  well- 
meaning,  anxious  to  earn  their  own  way,  but  hope- 
lessly inefficient. 

(5)  BREAKING  OF  HOME  TIES.  Family  diffi- 
culties, quarrels  and  disagreements  between  hus- 
bands and  wives,  the  desertion  of  the  wife,  or  in 
many  cases  her  death  which  led  to  the  breaking  up 
of  the  home,  were  reasons  for  taking  to  the  road  ad- 
mitted by  a  number  of  tramps.  Some  wife  deserters 
were  among  these  but  just  how  many  it  would  be 
impossible  to  state,  since,  as  previously  noted,  a 
number  of  the  men  admitted  that  they  had  "left" 
their  families  but  very  few  that  they  had  de- 
serted them.  Almost  invariably  they  would 
claim  an  intention  to  return  home  "before  long" 
or  as  soon  as  they  got  a  job,  even  though  they 
may  have  been  tramping  and  idling  for  a  number 
of  years,  during  which  they  had  never  communi- 
cated with  their  homes.  The  fact  of  actual 
homelessness,  however,  is  alone  responsible  for 
the  presence  of  a  certain  proportion  of  the  home- 
less men  in  the  cheap  lodging  houses,  and  it  was 
unquestionably  the  real  reason  why  a  small  per- 

228 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

centage  of  these  tramps  first  took  to  wandering. 
Our  investigation  proved  that  the  greater  number 
of  widowers  who  left  their  homes  upon  the  break- 
ing up  of  their  families  had  at  that  time  already 
reached  an  age  when  to  do  so  was  to  invite  ruin. 
For  the  severing  of  connections  with  life-long 
friends  and  acquaintances  in  their  own  towns 
and  the  attempt  to  establish  themselves  anew 
elsewhere,  when  over  fifty,  had  been  a  fatal  mis- 
step, from  the  results  of  which  very  few  of  these 
men  had  been  able  themselves  to  recover.  We 
succeeded  in  reinstating  a  few  of  them  when  they 
had  not  been  too  long  on  the  road  by  returning 
them  to  their  home  cities,  but  for  those  in  whom 
the  habit  of  wandering  had  become  firmly  estab- 
lished, we  could  do  nothing. 

(6)  To  ESCAPE  THE  LAW.  A  certain  rather 
limited  number  of  the  tramps  with  whom  we  came 
in  touch  admitted  that  they  had  left  their  homes 
in  order  to  escape  the  legal  consequences  of  par- 
ticular acts.  Our  own  investigations  discovered 
this  to  be  the  fact  in  a  few  other  ceases  where  men 
had  given  a  different  reason  for  their  first  wander- 
ing. It  is  well  known  that  criminals  take  to 
tramping  at  times  to  avoid  the  surveillance  of  the 
police,  but  as  not  many  criminals  are  confirmed 
wanderers,  they  are  not  true  tramps  under  the  defi- 
nition used  in  this  chapter,  and  therefore  are  not 
included  with  them.  The  few  criminals  here 
referred  to  are  of  a  weaker  type.  Several  were 
men  who  had  jumped  their  bonds  after  arrest  for 

229 


HOMELESS    MEN 

first  offenses.  Of  these,  one  was  a  physician  who 
had  forged  a  note  and  fled  to  escape  the  peni- 
tentiary. It  had  been  more  than  seven  years 
since  he  had  committed  the  offense  but  he  still 
lived  in  constant,  nervous  dread  of  discovery  and 
arrest.  Not  daring  to  register  his  true  name  and 
that  of  the  college  in  which  he  had  received  his 
medical  training,  he  was  unable  to  practice  his  pro- 
fession, and  without  references  he  claimed  to  be 
unable  to  secure  even  clerical  work;  he  therefore 
became  a  beggar  and  was  one  of  the  cleverest 
ever  reported  to  the  office.  He  had  been  in  to  see 
us  a  number  of  times  and  had  been  known  to  us 
under  half  a  dozen  names  for  almost  three  years 
before  he  one  day  confessed  his  true  name  and  told 
of  the  forgery  that  had  made  him  an  outcast. 

(7)  MENTAL  OR  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  OR  ILLNESS. 
These  were  the  direct  or  indirect  reasons  why  a 
number  of  men  who  later  became  tramps  left  their 
homes.  The  consumptive  who  wanders  is  a  familiar 
figure  in  charity  offices;  insane  men  and  feeble- 
minded men,  as  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  fre- 
quently drift  onto  the  road.  So  also  do  epileptics 
when  the  fact  that  they  suffer  from  frequent  seizures 
becomes  known  and  affects  their  relations  with 
their  friends,  or  their  opportunities  for  securing 
employment  in  their  home  towns.  All  these  men 
degenerate  with  peculiar  rapidity  into  chronic 
wanderers. 

The  seven  reasons  cited  above  were,  in  sub- 
stance, the  ones  given  by  practically  all  of  the 

230 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

confirmed  wanderers  in  this  group,  as  well  as  by 
hundreds  of  other  men  in  the  thousand — tramps  in 
the  making — who  were  asked  why  they  had  left 
their  homes.  It  will  be  noted  that  only  those 
having  the  true  fever  to  wander, — some  70  men, 
or  less  than  a  third  of  the  whole  number, — had 
in  the  beginning  intended  to  rove  for  the  sake  of 
roving.  All  of  the  others  had  merely  drifted 
into  the  habit  because  the  railroads,  unguarded, 
were  always  at  hand,  and  because  at  no  point 
in  their  careers,  after  they  took  to  roving,  had 
society  raised  effective  barriers  to  prevent  them 
from  drifting  further,  or  extended  helping  hands  to 
draw  them  back  toward  normal  life.* 

Only  men  with  a  true  instinct  for  wandering 
can  be  said  to  be  "born  tramps"  and  many  even 
of  these  would  never  become  confirmed  in  their 
habits  of  roaming  if  it  were, a  little  more  difficult 
for  them  to  indulge  their  abnormal  propensities 
in  this  direction;  but  if  the  facts  brought  out  by 
this  study  of  220  cases  are  typical,  not  more  than 
31  per  cent  of  the  chronic  wanderers  can  plead  an 
active  desire  as  their  excuse  for  being  on  the  road. 
Almost  70  per  cent  are  mere  drifters,  men  who 
might  under  different  conditions  have  remained 
at  home  and  have  become  useful  citizens. 

(8)  UNGUARDED  RAILWAY  TRACKS.  It  is  the 
mere  accessibility  of  the  railroads  more  than  any- 
thing else,  I  believe,  that  is  manufacturing  tramps 

*  For  data  concerning  the  truth  or  falsity  of  their  stories,  see 
Table  X,  p.  216. 

231 


HOMELESS    MEN 

today.  So  long  as  it  is  possible  for  practically 
any  man  or  boy  to  beat  or  beg  his  way  about 
the  country  on  the  railroads,  we  shall  continue  to 
have  tramps  in  America.  When  we  succeed  in  abso- 
lutely closing  these  highways  to  any  but  persons 
having  a  legitimate  right  to  be  upon  them,  we  shall 
check  at  its  source  the  largest  single  contributory 
cause  of  vagrancy,  and  the  problem  of  the  tramp, 
as  such,  will  practically  be  solved.  As  an  unem- 
ployed, untrained,  sick,  or  irresponsible  homeless 
man  he  will  still  need  attention,  but  this  can  be 
given  him  with  incomparably  less  difficulty  when 
once  he  is  deprived  of  the  facilities  he  now  has  for 
wandering  from  one  place  to  another. 

The  railroads  estimate  that  the  tramps  (under 
which  name,  as  before  stated,  they  include  all 
homeless  men  who  travel  without  paying  regular 
fares)  cost  them  not  less  than  $18,500,000  a  year.* 
In  this  enormous  sum  many  items  of  expense  are 
included.  If  a  tramp  is  injured  when  stealing  a 
ride,  the  railroads  must  pay  at  least  for  his  tem- 


*  Major  Panghorn,  representing  President  Murray  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio  Railroad,  gave  this  figure  as  an  estimate  in  the  follow- 
ing statement  made  at  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  Minneapolis,  June,  1907: 

"Never  in  the  history  of  the  American  railroads  has  there  been 
such  a  vicious,  such  a  destructive  horde  of  vagrants  on  the  railroads 
of  America  as  now.  Now  estimating  that  twenty  per  cent  of  the 
damage  done  is  by  the  tramps,  that  is  twenty  millions  a  year.  Say 
it  is  ten  per  cent,  that  is  ten  millions  a  year.  Add  the  maximum  and 
the  minimum  of  police  protection.  In  the  one  case  it  is  %i  5,000,000 
and  in  the  other  instance  it  is  $25,000,000.  Take  the  mean  of  the 
two  and  it  is  $18,500,000  that  vagrants  cost  us  in  money  per  annum." 
— Discussion  on  Vagrancy,  Proceedings  of  the  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1907,  p.  7). 

232 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS 

porary  care  in  a  hospital.  If  he  is  killed,  his  body 
cannot  be  left  by  the  roadside;  the  railroads  must 
pay  for  its  decent  burial,  and  they  do  this  in  hun- 
dreds of  cases  each  year.  Then,  too,  the  tramp  is 
a  great  destroyer  of  property.  While  stealing  a 
ride  in  a  freight  car  he  may  break  open  boxes  of 
crackers  and  of  canned  goods,  and  eat  food  the 
actual  value  of  which  may  be  but  ten  or  fifteen 
cents,  but  because  he  has  disturbed  the  contents 
of  these  boxes,  the  railroad  is  unable  to  deliver 
them  in  good  order  and  is  held  responsible  by 
shippers  for  their  full  value.  The  camp  fires  of 
tramps  and  their  carelessly  flung  cigarette  ends 
have  destroyed  much  valuable  property  belonging 
to  private  citizens  as  well  as  to  the  railroad  com- 
panies. 

When  railway  police  officers  arrest  men  for 
trespassing  certain  expenses  of  their  trials  must  in 
every  case  be  met  by  the  railroad,  and  not  infre- 
quently— because  of  the  diversity  of  the  laws  in 
different  states  and  the  varying  interpretations 
made  of  them  by  justices  within  a  single  state— 
the  railroads  are  unable  to  secure  convictions  of 
the  men  and  are  required  by  the  courts  to  carry 
them  out  of  the  towns  at  once,  lest  they  become 
local  nuisances  when  discharged.  These  are  a 
few  of  the  expense  items  which  go  to  make  up  the 
sum  mentioned  above.  And  yet  in  large  sections 
of  the  country  the  railroads  are  helpless  to  rid 
themselves  of  the  tramps  because  they  are  unsup- 
ported by  the  laws,  or  rather  by  the  local  enforce- 

233 


HOMELESS    MEN 

ment  of  the  laws,  in  these  districts.  It  becomes  a 
temptation,  therefore,  when  the  railroad  police- 
men discover  that  a  certain  justice  in  a  particular 
city  or  town,  is  willing  to  convict  and  punish  the 
tramps  before  him,  for  these  officers  to  carry  tres- 
passers to  this  place  if  possible  before  attempt- 
ing to  arrest  them,  and  :n  such  instances  it  usually 
will  not  be  long  before  the  taxpayers  will  rebel 
at  the  expense  for  the  workhouse  maintenance  of 
non-resident  men  which  the  frequent  convictions 
by  this  judge  is  forcing  upon  them. 

The  chief  difficulty  in  the  situation  seems  to 
lie  in  the  fact  that  as  the  laws  are  now  framed  in 
most  of  our  states,  the  community  in  which  the 
tramp  is  brought  into  court  and  convicted  is 
responsible  for  the  cost  of  his  maintenance  in 
the  jail  or  workhouse,  and  the  feeling  is  everywhere 
common  that  this  is  benefiting  the  railroads  at 
the  expense  of  local  taxpayers.  "The  tramp  is 
not  a  resident  of  this  county.  The  railroad  has 
brought  him  here.  Let  the  railroad  take  him 
where  he  really  belongs  and  there  convict  him  if 
it  can."  This,  in  substance,  is  the  reasoning  ad- 
vanced in  all  sections  of  the  country. 

A  letter  asking  "What  do  you  do  with  the 
tramps?"  was  sent  to  the  chiefs  of  police  of  100 
American  cities,  a  few  years  ago,  and  more  than 
half  of  them  replied,  "Give  them  so  many  hours 
to  get  out  of  town."  Such  a  negative  policy  in 
dealing  with  these  men  can  only  result  in  a  greater 
expense  to  every  community  in  the  long  run,  for 

234 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR   "TRAMPS" 

the  cost  of  the  tramp  is  met  somehow  and  some- 
where every  day  of  the  year  and  each  community 
will  receive  from  some  other  just  as  many  tramps 
as  it  passes  on.  Moreover,  until  the  "tramp 
problem"  is  fairly  met  and  intelligently  grappled 
with  in  every  state  of  the  Union,  the  total  number 
of  wanderers  will  continue  to  increase  and  the 
needless  loss  to  the  country  as  a  whole,  both  of 
good  citizens  and  of  money,  will  be  more  appalling 
than  it  now  is. 

If  the  migrations  of  tramps  could  be  controlled, 
as  already  suggested,  under  some  sort  of  federal 
inter-state  commerce  law,  the  problem  might  per- 
haps be  solved,  but  it  is  most  unlikely  that  these 
vagrants  can  be  dealt  with  by  the  national  govern- 
ment until  long  after  individual  states  have  dis- 
covered how  best  to  deal  with  them  locally. 
Students  of  the  problem  now  generally  believe 
that  little  progress  can  be  made  by  any  state  until 
the  responsibility  for  the  treatment  of  the  tramp  is 
assumed  by  the  state  as  a  whole;  until  the  laws 
which  affect  him  are  state  laws;  until  the  cost  of 
his  arrest  and  punishment  or  treatment  is  met  by 
the  state,  and  not  by  counties  or  cities  within  the 
state.  For  the  man  who  proves  upon  investigation, 
after  detention,  to  be  not  a  true  tramp  but  merely 
an  unfortunate,  a  sick,  or  an  insane  homeless  man, 
whose  place  of  legal  residence  can  be  discovered,  let 
the  state,  if  it  has  none  already,  enact  laws  to 
enable  it  to  send  him  back  to  his  home.  If 
he  belongs  within  the  state,  or  if  he  has  been  a 

235 


HOMELESS    MEN 

tramp  so  long  that  he  has  no  legal  residence  in 
any  section  of  the  country,  let  the  state  in  which 
he  has  been  found  and  arrested  bring  his  wander- 
ings to  an  end  by  placing  him  in  a  proper  institu- 
tion. 

Each  commonwealth  will  require  a  certain 
minimum  equipment  of  good  institutions,  if  it 
would  deal  effectively  with  all  the  various  types 
of  men  that  are  on  the  road,  but  many  states 
already  have  several  of  the  needed  institutions 
which  should  be  available  for  the  treatment  of 
tramps  whose  legal  residence  cannot  be  deter- 
mined as  well  as  for  men  who  are  legal  residents  of 
the  particular  state.  These  institutions  should 
include  a  hospital  for  the  insane;  a  sanatorium  for 
consumptives;  a  colony  for  epileptics;  an  indus- 
trial home  for  the  feeble-minded ;  a  general  hospital 
to  which  any  man  who  is  ill  may  be  sent;  a  home 
for  the  incurably  ill;  an  industrial  training  school 
for  young  boys;  a  farm  colony  for  the  treatment 
of  inebriates,  to  which  they  should  be  sent  on 
indefinite  sentences  and  from  which  they  should 
be  released  only  under  probation;  and  lastly,  a 
compulsory  farm  colony  for  the  treatment  of 
vagrants  and  tramps  to  which  they  should  be 
committed  on  indefinite  sentences  and  where  they 
could  be  taught  trades  and  trained  in  habits  of 
work.  Given  all  these  institutions  and  a  carefully 
drawn  state  vagrancy  law, — similar  to  that  of 
Massachusetts, — and  given  also  a  strong  law 
prohibiting  railroad  trespass,  and  there  will  be 

236 


CONFIRMED   WANDERERS   OR    "TRAMPS" 

little  doubt  but  that  the  particular  state  having 
such  laws  and  such  an  institutional  equipment  will 
effectually  and  permanently  rid  itself  of  tramps. 

The  words  "rid  itself  of  tramps"  are  used 
advisedly,  for  so  long  as  only  one  or  two,  or  half  a 
dozen  states  possess  such  laws  and  enforce  them, 
the  tramp  problem  will  still  exist  in  all  the  rest 
of  the  country.  Vagrants  will  simply  avoid  the 
states  where  they  know  they  will  be  arrested  and 
will  flock  into  the  others  where  laws  are  less 
strict  or  less  well  enforced.  But  if  a  few  of  the 
larger  states  like  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
and  Illinois  should  decide  to  deal  with  tramps  in 
the  way  indicated,  adjoining  states  would  soon  be 
forced  to  do  the  same  and  gradually  still  others, 
as  these  found  that  they  could  no  longer  pass  on 
vagrants,  would  do  so  in  self  defense,  until  finally 
we  might  have  railway  trespass  laws  that  were 
adequately  enforced  all  over  the  country.  Massa- 
chusetts has  already  passed  very  effective  vagrancy 
and  railway  trespass  laws,  and  Massachusetts  alone 
of  all  the  states  of  the  Union  has  practically  all 
the  institutions  just  mentioned.  In  New  York 
state  for  a  number  of  years  a  bill  for  a  compulsory 
labor  colony  has  been  presented  to  succeeding  leg- 
islatures, but  it  has  not  yet  become  law;  and 
Indiana,  Minnesota,  Pennsylvania,  and  Washing- 
ton are  agitating  the  question  of  founding  such 
colonies.  Undoubtedly  as  little  by  little  a  more 
intelligent  public  opinion  regarding  the  tramp  is 
evolved,  and  as  the  processes  which  are  needlessly 

23? 


HOMELESS    MEN 

bringing  him  into  existence  are  better  realized  and 
understood  throughout  the  country,  the  states  will 
one  after  another  equip  themselves  with  laws  and 
institutions  that  will  enable  them  individually  and 
jointly  to  cope  successfully  and  finally  with  the 
problem  of  his  elimination,  a  problem  which  at 
the  present  time,  owing  to  the  fact  that  his  number 
is  still  on  the  increase,  looks  discouraging  if  not 
hopeless. 


238 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY 
BOYS 

A  week  rarely  passed  during  the  four  years  the 
writer  was  connected  with  the  Chicago  Bureau 
of  Charities  in  which  there  was  not  an  appeal 
for  help  from  some  vagrant,  homeless,  or  runaway 
boy,  and  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  there  were 
often  several  such  appeals  in  a  week.  It  was  an 
unwritten  rule  of  the  office  that  the  case  of  one  of 
these  wandering  boys  must  always  have  right  of 
way  over  any  other  work  that  might  be  in  hand. 
He  was  interviewed  with  special  tactfulness  lest 
his  suspicions  be  aroused.  Very  few  questions 
were  asked  of  him;  he  was  allowed  to  tell  his 
story  in  his  own  way  and  no  surprise  was  expressed 
at  the  remarkable  statements  sometimes  made 
(as  for  instance,  when  an  unusually  small  boy  of 
ten  claimed  to  have  been  fully  self-supporting  for 
six  years).  The  usual  rules  of  the  office  were  set 
aside  and  the  boy  was  invited  into  the  private 
rooms  where  he  helped  the  stenographer  file  her 
letters  and  became  the  friend  and  general  assistant 
of  the  superintendent  and  all  the  visitors.  No 

239 


HOMELESS    MEN 


TABLE  XL— GENERAL    DATA  CONCERNING    117  HOME- 
LESS, VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY   BOYS 


10  years. 

12  years. 

13  years. 

14  years. 

15  years. 

1 6  years. 

17  years, 

1 8  years, 

19  years, 

Total . 


A.     AGES 


4 

8 

7 

19 


22 


117 


B. 

American  * 


NATIVITY 
(including      5 


101 

4 
ii 


Negroes)  . .  . 

German 

Other 

Not  known i 

Total 117 

*  The  parents  of  82  of  the 
American  boys  were  American 
(including  5  Negroes);  7,  Ger- 
man; 9,  others;  i,  mixed;  and 
2,  not  known. 


C.    OCCUPATIONS 

Skilled  work 

Unskilled* 

Never  worked  f-  • 

In  school 

Not  known .  . 


Total 


9 

"s 

21 

22 

117 


*  Farm  hands,  10;  hotel  boys, 
9;  newsboys,  8;  messengers,  3; 
office  boys,  3;  laborers,  6; 
factory  hands,  3;  odd  jobs,  5; 
other  work,  10. 

t  These  were  older  boys,  six- 
teen to  nineteen  years  of  age. 
Two  of  them  were  illiterate,  one 
of  the  two  having  no  school  rec- 
ord though  born  in  Chicago. 


D.     PHYSICAL      AND      MENTAL 
CONDITION 

Good 77 

Defective 40 

Blind  (partly),  2;  deaf 
(entirely,*  2;  partly,  i), 
3;  crippled  (tempora- 
rily, i ;  permanently,  8), 
9;  epileptic.f  3;  feeble- 
minded, J  3;  ill  (tem- 
porarily, cause  not 
known),  2;  convales- 
cent, 5;  heart  disease, 
i;  tuberculosis,  12. 

Total 117 

*  One  was  syphilitic  also. 

t  One  was  crippled  also,  one 
was  feeble-minded  and  the  third 
had  been  locked  into  a  freight- 
car  when  beating  his  way  in 
winter  and  had  had  his  feet 
frozen. 

t  Epileptic  also  in  one  case. 


effort  was  made  to  force  his  confidence,  but  the 
informal  friendliness  with  which  he  was  treated 
usually  won  it  within  a  day  or  two,  after  which  the 

240 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,    AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

better  qualities  in  the  lad  could  be  appealed  to; 
and  with  the  office  to  act  as  intermediary,  to 
lessen  the  difficulties  and  misunderstandings  which 
he  thought  lay  before  him  if  he  returned  unan- 
nounced to  his  home,  it  was  generally  possible  to 
bring  about  a  reconciliation  and  to  return  the  boy 
who  was  a  runaway^  to  his  parents  or  guardians 
within  a  few  days  or  a  week.  Lads  who  were  not 
runaways  were,  as  a  rule,  less  difficult  to  reach  and 
deal  with,  since  a  majority  of  them  asked  in  the 
first  interview  to  be  sent  home  and  gave  all  the 
information  about  themselves  which  we  needed. 
Some  others,  however,  wished  to  remain  in  Chicago 
and  asked  us  for  work,  and  in  these  cases  we 
frequently  found  it  necessary,  after  investigating 
their  circumstances,  to  advise  the  boys  to  abandon 
this  idea  and  go  back  to  their  homes  instead.  If 
they  refused  to  do  this,  as  they  sometimes  did, 
the  responsibility  of  the  office  for  the  boy's  wel- 
fare at  once  became  great,  and  as  much  tact  and 
patience  was  required  in  dealing  with  such  lads 
as  with  runaways. 

The  boys  that  came  to  the  office  were  from  all 
sections  of  the  country  and  even  from  Canada, 
and  in  a  few  cases  from  Europe.  More  boys  came 
from  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis — the  two  largest 
cities  within  a  radius  of  a  few  hundred  miles  of 
Chicago — than  from  any  other  cities,  but  the  ease 
with  which  they  could  travel,  without  cost,  on 
the  railroads,*  brought  us  applications  from  boys 

*  For  discussion  of  this  subject,  see  Chapter  XII,  pp.  231-238. 
16  241 


HOMELESS   MEN 

whose  homes  were  as  far  east  and  west  as  Bos- 
ton and  San  Francisco  and  as  far  south  as  New 
Orleans. 

Out  of  the  group  of  a  thousand  homeless  men 
there  were  in  all  117  boys  under  twenty  years 
of  age.*  Only  19  of  these  lads  were  under  fifteen 
years  of  age;  but  98  were  from  fifteen  to  nineteen, 
and  it  is  notable  that  of  this  latter  number  con- 
siderably more  than  half  were  sixteen  and  seven- 
teen years  of  age,  these  being  apparently  the 
years  in  a  boy's  life  when  he  is  most  likely  to 
be  restless  and  ready  to  wander  away  from  home 
if  he  is  not  kept  interested  and  happy  in  it. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  and  singular  fact 
disclosed  by  a  study  of  the  histories  of  these  1 1 7 
lads  is  that  although  all  of  them  were  nominally 
"homeless"  very  few  of  them  wer£  actually  so. 
When  closely  questioned  only  20  boys  even  claimed — 
to  be  without  homes,  and  our  investigations  proved 
that  the  statements  of  1 3  of  these  were  false 
in  this  regard,  and  that  those  of  two  others  were 
probably  false,  since  all  the  names  and  addresses 
which  they  gave  us  were  fictitious  and  we  could 

learn    but    little concerning    them.     Sixty-three 

boys  out  of  the  i  17  had  run  away  from  their  homes; 
nine  more  were  probably  runaways;  and,  as  before 
stated,  only  20  in  all  the  group  even  claimed  to  be 
homeless,  and  but  five  of  these  really  were  so. 
Even  in  these  latter  cases  we  were  able  to  find 
relatives  or  friends  willing  to  receive  and  care 

*  See  Table  XI,  p.  240. 
242 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,    AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

for  two  of  the  boys,  leaving  a  total  of  but  three 
boys  who  had  in  fact  no  homes  of  any  sort  to  which 
they  might  have  returned  had  they  wished  to  do  so.* 

If  then,  as  seems  to  be  proved  by  this  study, 
the  majority  of  boys  on  the  road  and  in  city 
lodging  houses  are  not  actually  homeless,  it  is 
of  interest  to  try  to  discover  whether  there  is 
anything  unusual  about  them  or  about  the  homes 
or  environments  from  which  they  come  that  can 
account  for  their  vagrancy  or  their  unwillingness 
to  remain  at  home.  Many  questions  on  these 
two  points  occur  to  the  mind,  but  in  the  limits  of 
a  single  chapter  only  a  few  of  them  can  be  an- 
swered or  discussed. 

The  nationality  of  the  boys  was  mainly  Amer- 
ican. Only  15  had  been  born  abroad,  four  in 
Germany  and  11  in  other  countries.  Only  17 
of  the  101  who  were  born  on  American  soil  were 
known  to  have  foreign  parents.  In  two  cases  the 
parentage  was  not  learned  but  in  the  remaining  82 
cases,  or  70  per  cent  of  the  whole  number,  it  was 
known  to  be  American. 

In  answer  to  the  question  as  to  whether  the  boys 
came  from  the  cities  or  the  country,  we  found  that  24 
of  the  1 17  boys  (20  per  cent)  were  from  Chicago 
homes,  usually  from  the  poorer  neighborhoods;  but 
even  omitting  the  resident  boys,  the  table  shows 
that  48,1  or  a  majority  of  the  remaining  93,  were  city 

*  One  of  these  three  was  an  orphan  whose  history  we  could  not 
trace;  the  other  two  had  both  been  born  in  poorhouses  and  had  been 
abandoned  by  their  pauper  mothers. 

t  See  footnote  to  Table  27,  Appendix  A,  p.  304. 
243 


HOMELESS    MEN 

boys.*  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  of  the  63 
boys  who  had  run  away  from  their  homes,  38  per 
cent  were  from  the  country  or  from  small  towns, 
while  of  the  54  boys  who  had  left  their  homes 
with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  their  parents 
but  29  per  cent  had  come  from  rural  communities. 
Apparently  the  desire  of  the  boy  belonging  to  the 
small  town  or  country  to  see  the  great  city  leads 
him  to  break  over  parental  authority  and  run  away 
from  home  in  more  cases  than  does  the  city  boy's 
dream  of  adventure.  ^ 

The  character  of  the  homes  from  which  the  1 17 
boys  came  has  been  noted. f  In  28  instances  we 
were  unable  to  learn  the  whereabouts  of  or  else 
knew  too  little  about  the  boys'  homes  to  judge  as 
to  their  character,  but  of  the  remaining  89  boys  we 
found  that  only  12  came  from  "poor"  homes  in 
the  sense  that  they  were  degraded  and  immoral 
as  well  as  destitute.  Twenty-seven  came  from 
homes  that  might  be  called  medium  in  character, 
homes  where  the  neighborhood  environment  was 
not  always  good  and  where  lack  of  means  and 
occasionally  the  ignorance  of  parents  kept  the 
children  from  the  fullest  opportunities  for  educa- 
tion and  development.  But  in  these  homes  the 
children  were  not  unloved,  and  the  boys  were 
trained  and  cared  for  as  well  as  are  the  sons  in  the 
average  American  home  where  the  income  ranges 

*  For  information  as  to  whether  boys  came  from  city,  town  or 
country,  character  of  homes,  and  family  relations,  see  Appendix  A, 
Table  ayA-C,  pp.  304-305. 

t  See  Appendix  A,  Table  278,  p.  305. 
244 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

from  $75  to  $100  a  month.  Forty-three  boys,  or 
almost  one-half  of  the  89,  came  from  what  1  have 
designated  as  "good"  homes.  All  these  terms  are 
relative,  but  in  this  classification  a  home  is  counted 
as  "good"  when  the  neighborhood  environment 
is  good,  when  the  family  income  is  sufficient  to 
insure  the  children's  physical  well-being,  and 
when  the  parents  are  moral  and  intelligent  people 
who  love  their  children  and  endeavor  to  give  them 
the  best  education  and  the  best  opportunities  for 
normal  development  that  they  can  command. 

The  existence  of  a  "cruel  stepmother"  is  not 
infrequently  mentioned  by  a  vagrant  boy  as  his 
excuse  for  leaving  home.  Only  10  boys  in  this 
group  were  found  upon  investigation  to  have 
stepmothers,  and  of  these  but  one  was  "cruel." 
The  harshness  of  this  woman,  a  Bohemian,  had  been 
in  fact  the  cause  of  the  lad's  running  away,  and 
recent  investigation  proves  that  he  and  another 
stepson  in  the  same  family  are  still  upon  the  road. 
Three  of  the  boys  who  had  stepmothers  told  us 
that  they  were  happy  at  home,  that  their  step- 
mothers were  "very  good"  to  them,  and  that  they 
had  run  away  for  entirely  other  reasons.  In  the 
six  other  cases  a  lack  of  sympathy  between  the 
boys  and  their  stepmothers  apparently  had  had 
something  to  do  with  the  desire  of  the  lads  to  leave 
home;  no  "cruelty,"  however,  had  existed  in  any 
of  these  cases. 

But  while  stepmothers  may,  in  the  popular 
mind,  too  frequently  have  been  charged  with 

245 


HOMELESS   MEN 

cruelty  and  personally  blamed  for  the  vagrancy 
of  boys,  it  is  a  fact  which  may  or  may  not  be 
significant  that  less  than  one-half  of  the  vagrant 
and  runaway  boys  here  listed  had  both  parents 
living  and  in  normal  family  relations.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  the  lack  of  love  and  guidance  of  one  or 
the  other  own  parent  which  a  broken  home  implies, 
may  have  had  more  to  do  with  the  desire  of  cer- 
tain of  these  boys  to  leave  their  homes  than  they 
themselves  realized  or  than  we  were  able  to  discover. 

All  but  two  of  the  25  boys  listed  as  "full  or- 
phans"* were  over  seventeen  years  of  age  and 
in  most  instances  they  had  been  in  orphanages  or 
in  the  care  of  societies  which  place  children  in  pri- 
vate homes  for  care  or  adoption.  Twelve  had  run 
away  from  such  homes  or  institutions;  13  had  set 
out  to  find  work  with  the  knowledge  and  consent 
of  their  guardians. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  light  can  be  thrown 
by  this  study  upon  the  extent  to  which  child  labor 
must  be  considered  as  a  cause  of  vagrancy. f  The 
question  as  to  the  age  at  which  they  began  work 
was  not  often  asked  of  the  men  who  applied; 
and  among  these  boys  we  lack  information  in  36 
instances  out  of  the  total  of  66  who  worked. J 
Of  the  30  boys  whose  age  at  beginning  work 
we  know,  10,  or  one-third,  had  been  employed 
under  fourteen, — four  as  newsboys,  three  on  farms, 

*  See  Appendix  A,  Table  ayC,  p.  305. 

t  For  note  on  Child  Labor  see  Chapter  VIII,  p.  136. 

J  See  Table  XI,  p.  240. 

246 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

and  three  as  hotel  boys;  but  in  none  of  these  10 
cases  could  we  trace  a  clear  connection  between 
the  youthful  ages  at  which  the  boys  began  to  work 
and  their  vagrancy.  The  nature  of  their  employ- 
ment as  newsboys,  messenger  boys,  bell  boys,  etc., 
occupations  which  give  little  or  no  training  for 
men's  work,  and  which  frequently  threw  them  into 
bad  company,  was,  in  a  few  cases  out  of  the  66, 
apparently  directly  responsible  for  vagrant  habits. 

Records  of  the  occupations  of  the  boys*  show 
that  very  few  of  them  were  employed  in  lines  of 
work  in  which  they  received  training  of  value. 
Nine  only  were  learning  trades.  Fifty-seven  were 
employed  at  unskilled  work.  Eight  boys,  al- 
though they  had  not  been  in  school  for  many  years, 
had  never  done  any  sort  of  work.  One  of  these 
ran  away  from  his  home  in  Chicago  when  only 
seven  years  of  age  and  succeeded  in  reaching 
Buffalo  before  he  was  taken  in  charge  and  sent 
back.j  All  of  these  eight  boys  who  had  never 
done  any  form  of  work  were  confirmed  tramps  and 
vagrants  at  the  time  of  their  applications  to  the 
office.  Twenty-one  boys  were  in  school  up  to  the 
time  that  they  left  home,  and  probably  a  number 
of  the  22  whose  school  record  is  listed  as  "not 
known"  were  also  school  boys. 

Although  a  number  of  the  boys  under  twenty 
who  applied  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities  had  been 

*  See  Table  XI,  p.  240. 

fThis  boy  has  spent  almost  all  of  his  life  since  that  date  as  a 
tramp,  wandering  all  over  America  and  Europe. 

247 


HOMELESS   MEN 

on  the  road  for  some  time  when  we  knew  them, 
and  still  others  had  come  from  homes  in  which 
they  had  received  but  little  care  and  training,  a 
surprisingly  small  proportion  of  them  were  really 
"bad."  Only  six  in  the  group  of  117  seemed  to 
have  had  marked  criminal  tendencies,  although 
1 1  had  been  in  jail  for  more  or  less  trifling  offenses,* 
and  several  had  been  pronounced  "incorrigible"  by 
parents  or  guardians.  However,  a  careful  study  of 
a  number  of  these  boys  after  an  interval  of  from 
five  to  eight  years  during  which  most  of  them  have 
grown  to  manhood,  justifies  a  strong  faith  in  the 
good  inherent  even  in  many  so-called  incorrigible  or 
criminally  inclined  boys  if  they  can  be  given  a  fair 
chance  to  overcome  bad  habits  in  a  changed 
environment.  Among  those  found  at  the  present 
time,  1 5  have  been  listed  as  "doing  well."t  These 
include  several  remarkable  instances  of  boys 
apparently  fated  to  be  tramps  or  criminals  who 
have  entirely  reformed  and  have  become  the  pride 
of  their  parents.  One  case  of  this  sort  is  especially 
striking: 

A  Chicago  boy  of  seventeen,  American  born  of 

*  Four  of  the  1 17  boys  had  been  in  orphanages;  10  in  homes  for 
dependent  children;  4  in  poorhouses;  and  19  in  newsboys'  or 
working  boys'  lodging  houses.  Two  had  been  confined  in  parental 
schools;  4  in  state  reform  or  industrial  schools;  and  1 1  in  jails  or 
houses  of  correction.  Seven  had  been  placed  out,  indentured,  or 
adopted  from  institutions,  and  2  had  been  placed  out  by  some  un- 
known agency.  Fifty-nine  had  never  been  inmates  of  charitable  or 
correctional  institutions.  Information  is  lacking  on  the  points  men- 
tioned above  in  26  cases  which  makes  it  seem  probable  that  several 
of  the  figures  should  be  greater.  A  number  of  boys  had  been  inmates 
of  two  or  more  correctional  or  charitable  institutions. 

t  For  information  concerning  after  career  of  the  boys,  see  page  263. 
248 


HOMELESS,   VAGRANT,    AND   RUNAWAY    BOYS 

foreign  parents,  left  home  because  his  sisters 
"picked  at  him"  on  account  of  his  laziness  and 
bad  habits.  He  went  down  to  the  levee  district 
where  he  became  the  pupil  of  a  negro  Fagin  who 
had  six  or  eight  boys  in  his  training.  This  man 
knocked  the  boy  down  and  kicked  him  brutally 
about  the  face  and  head  one  day  because  he  sus- 
pected him  of  not  turning  over  the  full  amount  of  a 
certain  theft.  According  to  the  boy's  story,  he 
was  then  locked  in  a  room  and  left  without  food 
or  care  until  the  following  day,  when  he  succeeded 
in  getting  out  and  was  referred  by  a  "man  in  the 
lodging  house"  to  the  Bureau  office.  When  he 
came  to  us  this  boy  was  the  most  miserable  looking 
of  all  the  miserable  creatures  who  had  ever  applied 
to  us  for  help.  His  shaggy,  uncut  hair  was  matted 
with  blood  and  dirt,  his  face  was  a  mass  of  bruises 
partly  covered  by  a  dirty  bandage,  his  clothing 
was  torn  and  filthy,  and  the  poor  lad  was  faint 
and  trembling  with  hunger.  Food,  surgical  treat- 
ment, and  a  bath  were  instant  needs;  the  only 
question  was,  which  should  be  furnished  first. 
We  took  care  of  this  boy  and  had  him  at  the  office 
daily  for  a  week.  Everyone  grew  fond  of  him 
and  he  was  helpful  and  gentlemanly  and  seemed 
pathetically  grateful  for  the  consideration  and 
friendliness  with  which  he  was  treated.  He  asked 
to  be  sent  to  the  country  to  live  on  a  farm.  His 
parents  were  consulted  and  approved  the  plan, 
and  arrangements  were  completed  to  send  him  the 
following  day,  when, — given  an  instant's  oppor- 

249 


HOMELESS   MEN 

tunity  in  conjunction  with  the  temptation, — he 
broke  open  a  desk,  robbed  the  office  of  f  1 1  and  a 
small  penknife,  and  fled.  Careful  search  with  the 
assistance  of  the  police  and  of  three  or  four  lodging 
house  men  who  offered  their  services,  failed  to 
find  the  boy  in  his  old  haunts,  and  as  he  did  not 
return  to  his  home  all  hope  of  reclaiming  him 
was  abandoned.  The  parents  of  this  boy  have 
been  visited  recently  and  it  has  been  learned 
that  at  the  time  of  his  disappearance  he  went  to 
Omaha  where  he  at  once  applied  for  and  received 
work.  He  did  well  and  was  several  times  ad- 
vanced. At  the  end  of  two  years  he  wrote  to  his 
parents.  He  kept  in  touch  with  them  for  three 
years  more,  when  he  returned  to  Chicago  where  he 
is  now  at  home  working  steadily  and  giving  to  his 
mother,  who  is  very  proud  of  his  success,  part  of 
each  week's  pay. 

Of  the  117  boys  considered  in  this  study,  62 
asked  only  for  transportation;  34  asked  only  for 
work.*  With  the  exception  of  a  few  boys  of  a 
degraded  type  who  were  already  beggars  when 
they  first  came  to  our  attention,  almost  all  were 
independent  in  spirit  and  anxious  to  be  self-support- 
ing. The  following  reasons  for  coming  to  Chicago 
given  by  the  54  non-runaway  boys  are  indicative 
of  their  general  character: 

*Of  the  63  runaway  boys,  30  asked  for  transportation;  22,  for 
work;  7,  for  food,  lodging  or  other  aid;  and  4  made  no  request. 
(These  latter  were  reported  by  citizens.)  Of  the  54  non-runaway 
boys,  32  asked  for  transportation;  12,  for  work;  8,  for  food,  lodging, 
or  other  aid;  and  2  made  no  request.  Several  of  the  boys  made 
requests  in  addition  to  the  one  listed. 

250 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

For  work 24 

To  join  the  navy  * 6 

On  way  east  or  west  to  relatives 7 

To  beg 3 

For  medical  treatment i 

Had  none  f 2 

Gave  none,  or  none  recorded 6 

Chicago  residents 5 

Total 54 

These  statements  tend  to  prove  that  while 
certain  of  them  may  later  have  become  chronic 
vagrants  from  inability  to  find  employment  or  from 
the  evil  associations  of  the  road  itself,  few  set  out 
without  definite  and  legitimate  objectives. 

While  the  boys  who  leave  their  homes  with  the 
permission  of  parents  or  guardians  do  so  from 
much  the  same  motives  as  those  which  lead  boys 
to  run  away  without  such  permission,  the  reasons 
which  these  latter  give  for  running  away  cannot  be 
included  because  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases 
they  were  found  not  to  be  the  actual  reasons. 
The  mere  fact  that  they  had  run  away  and  did  not 
wish  their  parents  to  know  their  whereabouts  led 
these  boys  to  tell  fictitious  stones  far  more  often 
than  was  the  case  with  the  other  lads.J 

In  other  respects  than  that  of  truthfulness,  there 

*  Each  of  these  boys  failed  to  pass  the  preliminary  examinations 
and  was  returned  by  the  Bureau  to  his  home. 

t  Feeble-minded  and  epileptic  boys  shipped  into  Chicago  by  public 
officials  of  other  cities  in  order  to  be  rid  of  them. 

I  The  reasons  why  these  boys  ran  away  are  given  later  in  the 
chapter  (p.  264)  but  they  represent  the  writer's  opinion  after  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  boys  and  investigation  of  their  cases,  and  only 
in  part  the  boys'  own  statements. 

251 


HOMELESS   MEN 

were  fairly  marked  differences  between  the  non- 
runaway  and  the  runaway  boys  in  the  group,  and 
it  has  seemed  worth  while  for  a  better  picture  of 
the  latter  group  to  consider  them  and  certain  of 
their  characteristics  separately. 

On  the  average  the  boys  who  have  run  away 
from  their  homes  are  much  younger  than  the  others 
who  may  be  found  on  the  road  or  in  lodging 
houses.*  The  records  show  that  52  boys,  or  over 
82  per  cent  of  the  runaways,  were  under  eighteen, 
while  but  24  boys,  or  44  per  cent  of  the  other  group, 
were  under  that  age.  This  difference  in  age  would 
alone  account  for  the  undoubted  fact  that  few 
runaway  boys  are  actually  capable  of  self-support 
and  that  many  of  them  are  therefore  in  danger  of 
becoming  bona  fide  tramps  unless  they  are  removed 
from  the  road.  Then,  too,  the  younger  the  boy  the 
less  likely  is  he  to  be  settled  in  his  habits  or  re- 
sponsible in  his  actions.  Often  he  is  still  a  dreamer 
and  a  romancer  at  seventeen,  although  he  may 
have  attained  almost  the  stature  of  a  man.  He  is 
erratic  and  changeable,  a  creature  of  moods  and 
impulses.  One  who  deals  with  grown  men  and 
women  who  are  mentally  normal  can  usually  count 
with  a  fair  degree  of  confidence  upon  their  actions 
under  specific  circumstances.  Self-preservation, 
love  of  family,  the  desire  for  personal  liberty 

*  The  ages  of  the  63  runaways  were:  10  years,  i;  12  years,  3; 
13  years,  4;  14  years,  8;  15  years,  4;  16  years,  16;  17  years,  16;  18 
years,  7;  and  19  years,  4.  Twenty  had  been  in  school;  39,  at  work 
(only  2  of  these  were  under  fourteen);  3  had  had  no  occupation,  and 
the  occupation  of  i  was  not  known. 

252 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

and  other  natural  instincts  and  desires  may  be 
trusted  to  restrain  them  from  certain  actions 
under  certain  conditions.  But  with  boys — espe- 
cially with  the  type  of  boy  who  runs  away  from 
his  home — it  is  different.  One  can  never  be  sure 
that  a  given  stimulus  will  produce  the  expected 
reaction.  Tell  a  young  boy  that  he  will  be  arrested 
if  he  commits  a  certain  offense  and  he  may  do  it 
at  once  out  of  a  mere  childish  curiosity  to  see  the 
inside  of  a  jail  or  from  a  desire  to  have  a  ride  in 
the  patrol  wagon.  Similarly,  some  chance  word, 
some  picture  or  story,  or  even  some  sound,  like 
the  whistle  of  a  distant  engine  on  the  railroad, 
may  act  as  the  suggestion  which  leads  the  boy  to 
run  away  from  his  home. 

To  attempt,  in  the  case  of  every  lad  who  runs 
away,  to  give  a  definite  reason  for  his  action,  would 
be  impossible.  The  boys  themselves  cannot  tell. 
Some  vague  instinct  to  wander,  inherited  per- 
haps from  past  ages  of  the  race,  appears  in  a 
number  of  cases  to  be  the  only  reason  for  their 
setting  out.  In  others  a  mere  impulse  leads  them 
away.  In  still  others  there  seems  to  be  nothing 
as  definite  as  impulse;  chance  alone  sets  them  to 
wandering.  But  once  he  is  on  the  road,  who  can 
possibly  foretell  what  a  boy  will  do?  A  mistaken 
sense  of  honor,  hurt  pride,  a  passing  whim,  or 
simple  curiosity  may  lead  him  to  do  things  from 
which  we  should  have  expected  that  all  his^natural 
instincts  as  well  as  his  home  training  would  have 
withheld  him. 

253 


HOMELESS    MEN 

For  example,  a  Chicago  boy  of  ten  went  down 
town  after  school  one  day  with  two  boys  who 
lived  near  him,  brothers,  nine  and  thirteen  years 
old.  One  of  them  had  a  quarter  which  admitted 
the  trio  to  a  vaudeville  show  and  supplied  them 
with  candy.  After  leaving  the  show  they  wan- 
dered about  the  streets  for  several  hours.  The 
two  brothers  then  went  home,  but  their  ten-year- 
old  neighbor  refused  to  go  with  them.  Toward 
midnight  he  strayed  into  a  State  Street  lodging 
house  where  he  was  allowed  to  remain  over  night. 
He  wandered  about  the  down  town  streets  for  the 
next  three  days,  returning  each  night  to  the 
lodging  house  where  he  told  the  clerk  that  he  was 
an  orphan  and  worked  at  one  of  the  large  dry  goods 
stores.  The  fourth  morning,  one  of  the  older 
lodgers  at  the  house,  a  man  well  known  at  the 
Central  District  office  of  the  Bureau,  brought  us 
word  that  the  boy  was  there  and  an  agent  was  sent 
from  the  Bureau  to  look  him  up.  He  found  that 
the  clerk  of  the  lodging  house  had  that  morning 
turned  the  boy  over  to  a  woman  officer  of  a  popular 
and  well-known  religious  organization.  This  wo- 
man was  seen  late  in  the  day  and  said  that  she 
had  placed  the  child  for  care  and  adoption  in  a 
good  family  home  in  the  city  This  had  been  done 
without  any  attempt  to  verify  the  boy's  statement 
that  he  was  a  homeless  orphan.  This  story  is 
told  less  to  illustrate  the  irresponsible  way  in 
which  the  cases  of  children  are  sometimes  disposed 
of  than  to  show  the  boy's  strange  acquiescence  in 

254 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,    AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

the  plan.  Having  had  experience  with  this  sin- 
gular trick  of  young  boys,  and  suspecting  that 
this  one's  story  was  false,  the  agent  of  the  Bureau 
went  to  the  police  department  to  see  if  a  lost  boy 
fitting  the  description  of  this  child  had  been  re- 
ported and  learned  that  he  was  the  only  son  of 
well-to-do  parents  who  were  living  within  two 
miles  of  the  foster  home  in  which  the  boy  had  been 
placed  and  who  had  been  searching  for  him  in 
great  anxiety  ever  since  the  night  of  his  disappear- 
ance. Why  had  this  boy  who  had  been  perfectly 
happy  in  his  own  home  allowed  himself  to  be  placed 
in  a  less  desirable  home  among  strangers  rather 
than  admit  that  he  was  not  the  orphan  he  had 
claimed  to  be?  Was  it  all  a  game  which  he  con- 
sidered still  unfinished? 

A  twelve-year-old  lad  went  even  further  with- 
out confessing  the  truth  about  himself.  His 
home  was  in  a  city  in  Iowa.  A  blind  beggar  with 
a  hand  organ  and  a  monkey  came  along  the  street 
one  day  and  the  boy  followed,  remaining  with 
him  until  evening,  when  the  beggar  camped  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  city  to  eat  his  supper.  He 
shared  his  food  with  the  boy  and  then  invited 
the  more-than-willing  lad  to  accompany  him  in 
his  travels.  This  arrangement  continued  several 
months  or  until,  somewhere  in  Indiana,  the  beg- 
gar got  into  a  drunken  row  and  was  arrested. 
The  boy  told  us  that  he  gave  the  police  his 
home  address,  but  whether  or  not  he  did  so  the 
authorities  shipped  him  back  only  as  far  as 

255 


HOMELESS   MEN 

Chicago.  There  he  gravitated  to  the  Newsboys' 
Home,  which  is  in  the  same  block  with  the  Central 
District  office  of  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  and  one 
of  the  newsboys  advised  him  to  apply  to  us  for 
transportation  to  his  home.  We  wrote  at  once 
to  the  charity  organization  society  of  the  Iowa 
city  asking  them  to  see  if  the  boy's  story  was  true 
and  to  notify  his  parents  of  his.  whereabouts  and 
request  them  to  send  the  amount  required  for  his 
fare  home.  In  three  days,  replies  were  received 
verifying  his  story,  but  in  that  short  interval 
the  lad  was  picked  up  by  the  police  and  taken  to 
the  Juvenile  Court.  He  had  been  advised  by  the 
boys  at  the  Newsboys'  Home  to  tell  the  matron 
there  that  he  was  an  orphan;  therefore,  he  told 
the  same  story  to  the  judge.  After  .a  cross- 
questioning  which  failed  to  shake  the  lad's  story, 
he  was  pronounced  a  "dependent  child"  and  sent 
to  the  Farm  School  at  Glenwood,  Illinois,  where, 
after  considerable  difficulty,  he  was  traced  by  the 
Bureau's  agent  who  secured  an  order  for  his  re- 
lease from  the  Juvenile  Court  and  sent  him  home. 
In  another  case  a  boy  allowed  himself  to  be 
given  by  the  Juvenile  Court  into  the  custody  of  a 
child-placing  society,  which  sent  him  to  a  country 
home  200  miles  away,  only  to  discover,  eight 
months  later,  by  a  confession  from  the  boy  him- 
self, that  he  was  a  runaway  from  a  good  home  of 
his  own  in  Ohio.  Instances  like  these  are  not 
unusual  or  rare,  as  anyone  accustomed  to  dealing 
with  vagrant  or  runaway  boys  can  testify. 

256  ' 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,    AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

Wanderlust,  "spring  fever,"  or  "restlessness"  as 
the  boys  themselves  termed  it, — a  desire  to  travel 
and  see  the  world,  to  break  the  monotony  of  endless 
school  days  by  new  experiences  and  adventures 
(and  perchance  to  make  a  fortune!),  was  found  to 
be  the  underlying  reason  why  37  at  least  of  the 
63  boys  here  listed  as  runaways  left  their  homes. 
Frequently  some  occurrence  at  school  or  at  home 
was  the  immediate  or  more  apparent  cause. 
For  instance,  one  boy  could  give  no  better  excuse 
for  leaving  an  excellent  home  than  that  a  new 
teacher  did  not  read  stones  Friday  afternoons  as 
her  predecessor  had  done.  Another  had  been  set 
back  in  school  and  a  third  was  "tired  of  going  to 
school."  In  each  instance  in  which  boys  claimed  to 
have  had  difficulties  with  their  stepmothers  or  other 
members  of  their  families,  when  the  boys  were  sent 
back  to  their  homes  they  set  out  again  within  a  few 
days  or  weeks,  indicating  that  restlessness  rather 
than  the  reason  which  they  mentioned  may  have 
been  the  underlying  cause  of  their  leaving  home. 

With  some  boys  wanderlust  is  little  more  than 
an  acute  attack  of  spring  fever.*  With  others  it  is 
an  intermittent  fever  returning  at  intervals  during 
a  period  of  several  years  after  which  they  recover. 
With  a  few  it  is  a  disease  which  becomes  chronic 
and  the  runaway  boy  develops  at  maturity  into  the 
confirmed  tramp. 

*  Fifteen  boys  out  of  37  whose  wandering  was  due  to  this  cause 
left  home  only  in  the  spring  or  early  summer  months.  A  group  of 
8  more  left  within  three  to  six  weeks  after  school  opened  in  the  fall. 
The  other  14  left  at  various  times  during  the  other  months  of  the  year. 

•7  257 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Of  the  37  wanderlust  cases,  I  have  attempted  to 
trace  22  at  the  present  time.  The  families  of  six 
had  moved  and  could  not  be  found.  Of  the  16  boys 
who  could  be  found  1 1  have  given  up  wandering 
and  are  doing  well.  Five  have  become  tramps. 
Of  the  1 1  who  today  are  at  home  or  doing  well 
elsewhere,  five  were  such  persistent  runaways  at 
the  time  we  knew  them  that  it  was  a  grave  ques- 
tion whether  it  was  worth  while  to  send  them  home 
to  their  parents  again.  One  had  run  away  three 
times  and  had  been  on  the  road  off  and  on  for  two 
and  a  half  years,  and  the  others  had  similar  records. 
Eight  of  the  1 1  who  have  turned  out  well  came 
from  good  homes.  Of  the  remaining  three,  two 
came  from  medium  homes.  The  third  came  from 
a  distinctly  bad  home;  environment  and  training 
were  bad  and  the  family  has  been  on  the  records 
of  the  local  charity  organization  society  for  a 
number  of  years.  In  spite  of  these  facts  this  boy, 
who  is  now  twenty-one,  did  not  remain  a  tramp, 
and  on  the  whole  has  turned  out  fairly  well.  He 
is  at  work  most  of  the  time  and  has  no  vicious 
habits.  Of  the  five  who  are  still  tramps  one  ran 
away  first  at  seven  years  of  age,  another  at  eleven, 
a  third  is  said  by  his  family  to  be  a  "born  wan- 
derer," and  the  fourth  ran  away  first  at  the  age  of 
sixteen  but  has  never  been  at  home  for  over  a 
month  at  a  time  in  the  five  years  since. 

The  fifth  boy's  case  is  somewhat  peculiar.  He 
first  ran  away  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  Previous 
to  this  time  he  had  been  a  rather  wilful  but  not 

258 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

otherwise  bad  boy.  He  came  of  good  family  and 
had  an  excellent  home.  His  own  mother  was  dead, 
but  his  stepmother  had  not,  so  far  as  we  could 
learn,  been  unkind  to  the  boy.  He  had  finished 
the  grammar  grades  and  one  year  in  the  high  school 
and  was  rather  a  favorite  with  his  teachers.  His 
training,  his  home,  his  neighborhood  environment, 
and,  so  far  as  an  onlooker  could  judge,  every  in- 
fluence surrounding  this  boy  was  good,  and  yet 
from  the  day  he  first  ran  away  he  steadily  de- 
generated until,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  made  by 
friends  and  family  to  reclaim  him,  he  became  what 
he  still  is — a  tramp  and  a  street  beggar.  For- 
tunately, such  cases  while  not  rare  are  not  fre- 
quent enough  to  warrant  any  one  in  giving  up  his 
faith  in  the  accepted  valuation  of  good  home  sur- 
roundings and  training.  As  an  offset  to  this  case 
is  the  following: 

This  boy,  one  of  the  1 1  wanderers  who  are  now 
doing  well,  was  well-behaved  up  to  the  age  of 
fifteen  when  he  ran  away.  It  was  a  case  of  spring 
fever,  from  which  he  recovered  in  a  week  or  two 
and  returned  to  his  home.  The  taste  of  freedom, 
however,  had  unsettled  him,  and  after  dis- 
tressing his  parents  greatly  for  a  few  months  by 
disobedience  and  unruliness,  he  again  ran  away. 
This  time  he  stayed  longer  and  his  father's  efforts 
to  trace  him  failed.  After  a  while  the  boy  came 
home  again,  but  after  his  second  trip  he  was  still 
more  changed  for  the  worse.  He  became  defiant 
of  all  rule  and  spent  his  time  upon  the  streets, 

259 


HOMELESS    MEN 

often  staying  out  until  late  at  night.  He  smoked 
considerably  and  once  or  twice  even  drank  to  ex- 
cess. When  September  came  the  boy  refused  to  go 
back  to  school  and  his  father  whipped  him.  He 
ran  away  a  third  time.  His  mother's  grief  and 
anxiety  over  his  loss  soon  began  to  affect  her  health 
and  the  boy's  father  spent  two  months  going  from 
one  eastern  city  to  another  in  a  vain  attempt  to 
find  him.  Late  the  following  March,  this  lad, 
hungry,  dirty,  and  ragged,  came  into  the  Central 
District  office  of  the  Bureau  of  Charities  and  asked 
for  work.  He  had  beaten  his  way  West  but  was 
unable  to  find  work  enough  in  Chicago  to  enable 
him  to  live.  He  admitted  that  he  was  a  runaway 
but  was  unwilling  to  go  home,  although  he  agreed 
to  let  us  write  to  his  parents  and  tell  them  where 
he  was.  During  the  week  or  ten  days  following 
his  application  we  kept  the  boy  at  the  office  as 
much  as  possible,  employing  him  at  odd  jobs  and 
gradually  winning  his  confidence.  His  father 
telegraphed  asking  us  to  send  him  home  in  care 
of  the  conductor,  and  the  lad  finally  gave  us  a 
reluctant  promise  to  return  to  his  home,  but  he 
seemed  to  dread  meeting  his  parents.  The  follow- 
ing day  a  man  friendly  to  the  office,  who  lived  in 
the  lodging  house  where  we  had  placed  the  boy, 
told  us  that  he  had  heard  this  lad  with  another, 
with  whom  also  the  office  was  dealing  at  the  time, 
planning  to  beat  their  way  West  the  next  day. 
I  sent  for  the  two  boys  on  some  pretext  and  had 
talks  with  each  of  them  separately.  In  this  talk 

260 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

the  eastern  boy's  real  objection  to  going  home 
came  out.  His  clothing  was  shabby  and  the  boys 
in  his  home  neighborhood  would  know  that  he 
had  not  succeeded  and  he  was  not  willing  to  let 
them  see  him  come  back  "looking  like  a  tramp." 
The  promise  to  purchase  a  complete  new  outfit 
for  him  settled  that  difficulty.  It  was  harder  to 
draw  out  of  the  boy  what  his  other  objection  was, 
but  it  finally  came.  "When  I  get  home  they  will 
be  glad  to  see  me — especially  mother — and  they 
won't  say  anything;  but  after  I've  been  home  for 
a  while  they  will  begin  to  throw  it  up  to  me  that  I 
ran  away,  and  the  first  time  I  do  anything  a  little 
bit  out  of  the  way  my  father  will  try  to  put  me  in  a 
reform  school,  and  I'll  never  stand  that.  I'll 
run  away  for  good  if  they  try  it.  Now  I've  had  a 
hard  time  since  I  left  home,  and  I  am  older  and 
have  learned  a  lot,  and  if  I  go  home  this  time  I 
will  stop  all  nonsense  and  try  to  do  right.  I'm  a 
lot  changed,  but  of  course  they  won't  know  that, 
and  I  can't  tell  them,  and  they  won't  understand, 
and  I  know  if  they  don't  and  if  my  father  threatens 
to  whip  me  or  to  send  me  to  a  reform  school  or 
anything  like  that,  I  will  just  have  to  run  away 
again,  so  I  thought  perhaps  I  had  better  not  go 
home  at  all."  I  promised  to  write  to  his  father 
and  to  explain  things  so  that  he  would  "under- 
stand." The  boy  was  put  upon  his  honor  not  to 
run  away,  and  after  the  purchase  of  a  new  suit, 
shoes,  and  a  cap,  his  ticket  was  secured  the  follow- 
ing day  and  he  was  sent  home.  Four  days  later 

261 


HOMELESS   MEN 

we  received  a  touchingly  grateful  letter  from  his 
father  saying  that  the  boy  had  arrived  safely  and 
seemed  to  be  much  changed  for  the  better  so  that 
he  hoped  the  family  would  have  no  further  worry 
about  him.  Seven  years  later,  in  answer  to  a 
recent  letter,  his  father  reports  that  from  a  wild, 
unmanageable  boy,  this  lad  has  developed  into  a 
fine  man.  He  went  back  to  school  for  a  while  and 
then  to  work  as  an  apprentice  to  learn  the  ma- 
chinist trade,  attending  night  school  in  order  to 
continue  his  studies.  He  is  now  earning  $2.75 
a  day  and  has  a  number  of  men  working  under  him. 
He  has  bought  himself  a  piano  and  is  taking  music 
lessons.  He  has  taken  several  courses  in  a  cor- 
respondence school  and  reads  and  studies  con- 
stantly. His  father  writes:  "We  have  not  had  a 
moment's  anxiety  regarding  him  since  the  day  of 
his  return  and  he  is  a  pride  and  comfort  to  us 
both." 

Cases  like  this  convince  one  that  an  attempt 
to  reinstate  the  boys  should  be  made  in  every 
instance,  no  matter  how  little  hope  of  success  there 
may  appear  to  be  at  the  time  it  is  made. 

The  result  of  attempts  to  trace  the  after-careers 
of  59  of  the  117  homeless,  vagrant,  and  runaway 
boys,  at  a  period  of  from  five  to  eight  years 
after  the  dates  of  their  applications  to  the  Bureau 
of  Chanties,  may  be  summarized  as  follows:* 

*  Most  of  the  recent  investigations  of  these  cases  were  made  by 
charity  organization  societies  in  cities  and  towns  all  over  the  country 
who  very  kindly  lent  their  services  in  these  and  many  other  cases  where 
re-investigation  was  requested. 

262 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,   AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

Unable  to  find  boys' families    .       .      21 
No  replies  to  letter     .       .       .       .        4    . 
Boys'  whereabouts  not  known  to  rela- 
tives  2 

Doing  well          15 

Doing  fairly  well  4*  [  23 

Doing  well  when  last  heard  from  4! 

Still  tramping  or  begging  4 

In  state  training  school    ...         i 

In  poorhouse i 

In  institution  for  feeble-minded     .       .          i 
Dead 2 

Total        .  .        59 

Cases  not  looked  up  ...        58 

Total 117 

The  cases  of  58  were  not  looked  up.  For  va- 
rious reasons  some  of  the  boys  gave  false  addresses 
at  time  of  application.  Some  were  lost  track  of 
then;  some  died.  In  others  the  writer  hesitated 
to  reopen  cases  where  no  new  application  had 
been  made. 

It  has  been  shown  that  out  of  a  total  of  30  who 
could  be  traced  today,  23,  or  almost  77  per  cent 
of  the  number  traced,  have  turned  out  well,  and 
of  the  few  known  to  be  still  wandering  only  two 
are  markedly  degenerate,  and  there  may  yet  be 
chances  of  reform  in  the  cases  of  the  others.  In 
one  instance  we  returned  a  boy  to  his  home  three 
times  and  the  last  time  he  stayed  there  and  is 

*  Two  weak  mentally.  Two  at  home  but  not  yet  steadily  em- 
ployed. 

t  One,  i  year  ago;  two,  2  years  ago;  and  one,  3  years  ago. 

263 


HOMELESS    MEN 

today  working  with  his  father  and  doing  well. 
In  another  case  a  boy  began  running  away  at 
nine  years  and  kept  it  up  until  he  was  eighteen,  at 
which  time  he  suddenly  decided  that  he  was  tired 
of  wandering  and  went  to  work.  He  is  today  the 
owner  of  a  good-sized  ranch  in  the  West  where  his 
love  of  freedom  and  an  outdoor  life  is  apparently 
satisfied  without  his  childish  desire  to  wander.  | 

The  probable  *  reasons  why  the  runaway  boys 
left  their  homes  may  be  stated  as:  Wanderlust, 
37;  difficulties  with  parents,  step-parents  or 
guardians,  5;  difficulties  with  brothers  or  sisters, 
9;  mere  impulse,  7;  had  to  work  too  hard,  i ;  too 
little  known  of  cases  to  judge,  4. 

Therefore  we  see  that  22  of  the  runaway  boys 
left  their  homes  for  other  reasons  than  wanderlust 
alone,  although  even  in  these  cases  it  may  have 
been  present  in  a  lesser  degree.  Difficulties  with 
parents,  step-parents,  brothers,  sisters,  or  other 
members  of  the  family  were  given  as  causes  in  14 
instances,  three  of  which  we  were  unable  to 
verify.  Of  the  five  boys  who  had  difficulties  with 
their  parents  or  guardians,  one  ran  away  because 
his  uncle  with  whom  he  lived  scolded  him  for 
being  lazy.  Another  left  home  because  his  par- 
ents objected  to  certain  of  his  companions  and  he 
considered  it  "none  of  their  business"  whom  he 
went  with.  A  twelve-year-old  left  because  he 
was  unjustly  punished  by  his  father  who  had 

*  Author's  opinion  after  investigation,  not  the  boys'  statements, 
which  often  differed  greatly  from  the  above  reasons. 

264 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

promised  not  to  whip  him  for  a  certain  offense 
and  then  had  changed  his  mind  and  done  so.  "  It 
was  not  the  first  time  he  had  lied  to  me,"  the  boy 
said,  "but  I  will  never  give  him  a  chance  to  again." 
The  fourth  came  from  a  very  poor  home  where 
he  had  an  indifferent  stepmother  and  a  more 
indifferent  father  who  was  brutally  harsh  in  his 
dealings  with  his  sons.  This  boy  had  tubercu- 
losis but  was  considered  only  lazy  by  his  father 
who  beat  him  cruelly  when  the  disease  incapaci- 
tated him  for  work.  He  died  soon  after  he  came 
to  our  attention. 

The  fifth  boy  claimed  that  his  father  had  turned 
him  out  of  his  home,  but  as  we  were  unable  to 
verify  this  or  any  other  statement  that  he  made 
and  as  the  boy  seemed  refined  and  well  cared  for, 
his  story  in  regard  to  mistreatment  was  almost 
unquestionably  false. 

A  majority  of  the  boys  who  ran  away  from  home 
on  account  of  difficulties  with  members  of  their 
families  did  not  have  complaints  to  make  of  their 
parents,  but  rather  of  older  brothers  and  sisters. 
"My  sisters  are  always  picking  at  me,"  said  one 
boy.  "My  older  brother  is  too  mean  to  live 
with,"  said  another.  "They  never  let  a  fellow 
alone,"  said  a  third. 

One  very  fine  lad  ran  away  for  the  rather 
unusual  reason  that  his  father  insisted  that  he 
apologize  for  some  offense  to  a  younger  brother. 
This  carefully-reared  boy  of  sixteen  left  his  home 
on  this  trivial  excuse  and  his  parents  had  no  idea 

265 


HOMELESS   MEN 

of  his  whereabouts  for  three  months.  Our  letter 
to  his  home  was  answered  by  a  telegram  saying 
that  both  parents  were  en  route  to  Chicago  and 
asking  us  to  hold  the  boy.  He  had  not  returned 
to  the  office  as  he  had  been  requested  to  do,  and 
when  they  arrived  he  had  again  dropped  out  of 
sight  like  the  proverbial  needle  in  a  haystack.  In 
this  instance,  as  in  a  number  of  others,  when  we 
wished  to  find  a  lost  man  or  boy,  we  called  not  for 
the  help  of  the  police  but  for  the  willing  services  of 
one  or  two  of  the  lodging  house  men  whom  we  had 
known  for  some  time  and  with  whom  we  were  in 
friendly  touch.  By  noon  we  had  a  clue  and  at 
nine  o'clock  that  evening  the  boy  walked  into  his 
parents'  room  at  the  hotel.  He  has  remained  at 
home  since  that  escapade  and  today  is  doing 
well. 

Probably  nothing  is  more  surprising  to  one  who 
works  with  runaway  and  vagrant  boys  than  their 
strange  indifference  to  the  claims  of  their  parents 
upon  them.  In  every  instance,  without  exception, 
where  we  notified  parents  that  we  had  their  sons 
in  our  care,  the  letter  from  the  Bureau  of  Charities 
was  the  first  word  of  any  kind  received  from  the 
boy.  That  their  parents  loved  them  and  would 
suffer  and  grieve  over  their  loss  seemed  never  to 
occur  to  the  lads.  The  boy  mentioned  above 
admitted  reluctantly  that  his  mother  "might 
worry  some"  over  his  three  months'  silence.  But, 
although  he  had  long  before  gotten  over  his  pique 
because  of  the  "injustice"  of  his  father's  request, 

266 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,    AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

he  refused  to  consider  going  home  or  even  writing 
to  his  mother  because — why? — because  the  new 
suit,  the  new  overcoat,  and  a  beautiful  gold  watch 
which  had  been  given  him  as  a  sixteenth  birthday 
present,  had  all  been  sold  or  pawned  for  food  in 
the  course  of  his  wanderings,  and  he  would  not 
go  home  until  he  had  earned  enough  to  redeem 
his  watch  and  go  back  as  well-dressed  as  he  had 
started  out.  Truly,  a  boy's  pride  is  a  thing  to  be 
reckoned  with! 

As  before  stated,  the  large  majority  of  the  boys 
who  applied  to  the  Bureau  were  independent  in 
spirit  and  anxious  to  be  self-supporting.  That 
they  were  not  able  to  be  so  was  ever  a  matter  of 
surprise  to  them.  Employers,  as  a  rule,  are  not 
anxious  to  give  work  to  unattached  and  homeless 
boys  who  can  give  neither  school  nor  home  refer- 
ences and  who  are  generally  more  or  less  shabby 
in  appearance.  The  occasional  boy  who  is  able 
to  overcome  such  objections  and  secure  the 
coveted  employment  is  surprised  to  find  how 
inadequate  are  the  $3.00  or  $4.00  or  $5.00  he  may 
earn  to  cover  all  his  weekly  expenses  of  food, 
lodging,  car  fare,  clothing  and  incidentals.  With 
the  realization  that  it  is  not  going  to  be  an  easy 
matter  to  "make  his  fortune/'  the  boy  becomes 
somewhat  discouraged,  but  with  his  discourage- 
ment there  is  liable  to  come  an  access  of  stubborn 
pride — a  renewed  determination  never  to  return 
home  until  he  can  prove  to  the  brother  who  has 
abused  him  or  to  the  sister  who  has  treated  him 

267 


HOMELESS    MEN 

with  contempt  that  he  has  made  a  mark  in  the 
world. 

Just  at  this  point  in  his  career,  the  runaway 
boy, — and  the  one  who  leaves  home  with  permis- 
sion as  well,  if  he  is  under  eighteen, — is  in  the 
greatest  danger  of  drifting  into  tramp  life.  For 
in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  he  cannot  accomplish  self- 
support  in  spite  of  his  praiseworthy  determina- 
tion to  do  so,  and  failing  to  succeed  in  one  city 
he  strikes  out  for  another;  failing  there,  he  goes 
on  to  another,  and  so  he  continues,  month  after 
month,  in  ever  increasing  danger  from  the  evil 
influences  of  the  road  itself  and  of  the  older  men 
who  travel  it  who,  as  a  rule,  have  no  scruples 
against  teaching  these  lads  to  beg  and  doing  what- 
ever else  they  can  to  injure  them  morally. 

Taking  the  cases  of  the  117  boys  as  a  whole 
and  recalling  also  the  many  other  "  homeless " 
boys  we  knew  well  at  the  Bureau  office  but  who 
are  not  included  among  the  thousand  cases,  I 
should  say  that  investigation  did  not  show  that 
their  homes,  or  their  schools,  or  their  work  environ- 
ment were  sufficiently  abnormal  in  character  or 
unsatisfactory  even  to  the  boys  themselves,  to 
account  for  their  desire  to  tramp  or  to  strike  out 
for  the  cities  to  seek  employment  and  inde- 
pendence. There  were  isolated  instances  of  abuse 
at  home;  there  were  numerous  cases  of  temporary 
misunderstanding  and  lack  of  the  sympathy  and 
appreciation  of  his  peculiar  trials  which  the  boy  at 
adolescence  needs;  there  were,  undoubtedly,  cases 

268 


HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND  RUNAWAY  BOYS 

in  which  distaste  for  school  had  much  to  do  with 
the  temptation  to  wander;  there  were  other  in- 
stances where  the  nature  of  a  boy's  employment 
predisposed  him  toward  idleness  and  vagrancy; 
but  in  the  great  majority  of  the  cases  we  dealt 
with  it  was  the  spirit  of  restlessness  and  longing 
for  change  which  seems  to  be  common  to  almost 
all  youths  in  their  teens,  that  more  than  any- 
thing else  was  responsible  for  their  presence  upon 
the  road  and  in  the  lodging  houses.  Doubtless 
thousands  of  boys  who  do  not  leave  their  homes 
experience  the  same  desires,  dream  the  same 
dreams,  but  are  less  venturesome  in  spirit  or  are 
held  by  habit  or  by  better  developed  powers  of 
judgment  and  foresight  than  are  possessed  by 
those  who  yield  to  these  vagrant  instincts. 

If  the  fact  were  more  generally  recognized  that 
boys  in  their  natural  development  from  childhood 
to  manhood  very  generally  experience  this  desire 
to  wander,  which  if  indulged  may  lead  to  disastrous 
consequences,  ways  of  counteracting  it  by  means 
of  directed  travel  or  of  work  or  amusements  of 
special  interest  to  them  and  adapted  to  their 
needs  could,  and  in  many  cases  would  be  devised 
by  parents  and  teachers.  But  it  is  only  quite 
recently  that  the  need  for  manual  training  in  the 
schools,  for  boys'  clubs,  for  directed  games  in 
city  playgrounds,  and  for  various  other  means  of 
reaching  and  interesting  lads  in  their  teens  has 
been  realized  by  any  considerable  number  of 
persons,  and  in  too  many  neighborhoods  the 

269 


HOMELESS   MEN 

adolescent  boy  is  still,  perhaps,  the  least  considered 
individual  in  the  whole  community.* 

A  preventive  measure  of  an  entirely  different 
character  which  would  act  as  a  great  deterrent 
to  boys  who  take  to  the  road,  would  be  the  closing 
of  the  railroads  to  trespassers.  Even  among  the 
boys  who  came  to  Chicago  to  seek  work,  with 
their  parents'  permission,  it  was  exceptional  for 
us  to  find  one  who  had  paid  railroad  fare  to  reach 
the  city.  Almost  invariably  they  had  stolen  their 
way.  If  stealing  their  way  could  be  made  abso- 
lutely impossible  it  is  certain  that  fewer  lads  would 
even  be  tempted  to  "tramp"  and  fewer  still  would 
in  the  end  become  vagrants  through  association 
on  the  railroads  with  older  wanderers. f 

And  that  a  great  many  boys,  both  runaways 
and  boys  who  have  left  their  homes  with  the  con- 
sent of  their  parents,  do  degenerate  into  tramps 
after  a  short  experience  on  the  road  and  in  the 
great  cities,  is  a  fact  which,  unfortunately,  cannot 
be  questioned.  The  mere  fact  that  117  boys  are 
found  in  a  group  of  a  thousand  homeless  men 
shows  that  the  proportion  of  youths  who  are 
wandering  is  very  high.  A  similar  or  greater 
proportion  of  boys  under  twenty  will  be  found 

*  An  interesting  and  even  nearer  approach  to  filling  the  specific 
needs  of  the  really  adventurous  boy  may  be  found  in  the  summer 
road  trip  of  a  boys'  club,  which  contains  elements  not  present  even  in 
the  club  camp.  The  possibilities  in  the  Boy  Scout  and  similar 
movements  should  also  be  carefully  considered. — Editor. 

t  The  question  of  the  practicability  of  closing  the  railroads  to 
trespassers  is  discussed  in  Chapter  XII,  Confirmed  Wanderers  or 
"Tramps,"  pages  231  to  238. 

270 


HOMELESS,    VAGRANT,    AND    RUNAWAY    BOYS 

listed  in  any  municipal  lodging  house  or  way- 
fayers'  lodge  where  statistics  regarding  the  ages 
of  applicants  are  kept.  And  in  this  connection 
it  should  be  remembered  that  young  American 
lads  are  by  nature  independent  in  spirit  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  percentage  of  those  who  apply 
to  charity  organizations  or  institutions  of  any 
kind  for  aid  is  small  in  comparison  with  the  total 
number  who  are  traveling  about  the  country.  A 
surprisingly  large  number  of  older  tramps  and 
homeless  men  whom  we  knew  at  the  office,  con- 
fessed that  they  had  entered  the  life  as  runaways 
and  had  never  communicated  with  their  parents 
in  the  interval  since  leaving  home.  One  man 
brought  or  sent  to  us  at  different  times  not  fewer 
than  six  young  lads  who  had  drifted  into  the 
lodging  house  where  he  stayed,  because  he  said 
they  were  "nice  little  chaps"  and  he  hated  to  see 
them  go  the  way  he  had  gone. 

Various  railroad  companies  in  their  reports  re- 
garding the  extent  of  trespassing  on  their  lines 
comment  especially  upon  the  large  number  of 
young  boys  to  be  found  among  the  tramps.  One 
line  in  the  central  West  claims  that  75  per  cent  of 
all  trespassers  on  the  road  are  boys  "traveling 
about  to  see  the  country."  This  percentage  is  not 
substantiated  by  figures  and  is  probably  an  exag- 
geration, but  if  even  one-half,  or  one-fourth,  or 
only  one-tenth  of  the  so-called  tramps  upon  the 
railroads  are  in  fact  mere  boys,  it  constitutes  an- 
other very  strong  reason  for  doing  everything 

271 


HOMELESS    MEN 

possible  to  close  the  railroads  to  them  as  well  as 
to  all  other  classes  of  wanderers. 

In  all  the  large  cities  and  in  many  of  the  small 
cities  of  the  country  there  are  charity  organization 
societies  or  associated  charities  which  will  gladly 
take  up  any  "boy  case"  that  may  be  reported  to 
them.  In  places  where  no  such  societies  exist  to 
which  the  homeless  boy  who  asks  aid  at  the  door, 
or  who  applies  to  a  citizen  for  employment,  can  be 
sent,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  might, 
perhaps,  undertake  the  task  of  investigating  the 
boy's  story  and  of  helping  to  get  him  back  to  his 
home.  If  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion has  no  branch  in  the  town  the  services  of 
some  particular  individual  who  is  specially  inter- 
ested in  boys  and  is  tactful  in  dealing  with  them, 
could  undoubtedly  be  enlisted. 

Charity  organization  societies  throughout  the 
country  would  be  glad  to  co-operate  with  any  organ- 
ization or  individual  who  undertakes  the  work  of  in- 
vestigating the  stories  of  these  boys.  As  a  general 
rule,  much  more  satisfactory  results  will  be  reached 
if  correspondence  is  opened  with  such  societies, 
which  can  send  an  agent  to  call  upon  a  boy's  rela- 
tives or  friends,  than  will  be  the  case  if  letters  are 
written  direct  to  the  parents  of  the  boy.  For  not 
only  do  the  boys  frequently  give  false  addresses, 
causing  letters  to  go  astray  or  to  be  returned  un- 
answered,— a  difficulty  which  the  agent  of  a  charity 
organization  or  similar  society  may  be  able  to  over- 
come by  reference  to  a  local  directory  or  by  inquiries 

272 


HOMELESS,    VAGRAVT,    *ND    RL 

of  principals  of  the  public  schools  o. 
trained  agent  of  a  society  of  this  sor 
the  boy's  home  and  a  talk  with  his  p 
able  to  report  to  the  inquirer  a  number  c 
the  character  of  that  home,  the  neighborhc 
ronment,  the  attitude  of  the  parents  towau 
child,  and  many  other  matters  which  may  be  inv<~ 
uable  to  him  in  his  effort  to  understand  and  deal 
in  the  best  possible  manner  with  the  boy  himself. 
However  much  the  individual  citizen  and  the 
social  agency  may  hesitate  to  deal  with  the  adult 
wanderer,  however  much   they  may  disclaim  re- 
sponsibility,  they    cannot   avoid   making  an    in- 
telligent  effort    to   open    the  way  for  the  wan- 
dering  boy   to   retrace   his   steps   toward   home. 
The  runaway  boy  constitutes  one  of  the  sources 
of  vagrancy   but   slightly   affected   by   economic 
causes.    The  closing  of  the  railways  and  adequate 
provision   for  juvenile   recreation   will   be   effec- 
tive preventives,  but  before  and  after  these  have 
been  accomplished  the  boy  who  has  actually  broken 
away  must  receive  wise  and  thorough-going  atten- 
tion.    As  we  have  seen,  these  boys  are  still  young    | 
enough  to  be  easily  influenced  for  good  as  well  as  for 
evil.    If,  as  our  experience  at  the  Bureau  of  Charities 
apparently  demonstrated,  many,  if  reached  in  time, 
could  readily  be  persuaded  to  return  to  their  homes, 
every  individual  and  agency  that  comes  in  touch 
with  these  lads  in  whatever  capacity,  should  en- 
deavor to  bring  about  their  reinstatement  before 
it  is  too  late. 

.8  273 


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TABLE  4.— DATA  ON  SPECIAL  GROUPS  OF  DISEASES  AND 
DEFECTS  (SUPPLEMENTING  TABLE  II,  p.  36) 

OTHER  NERVOUS  DISORDERS:  Locomotor  ataxia,  10;  neuritis,  3; 
neuralgia,  2;  neurasthenia,  2;  sciatica,  shingles,  chorea, 
and  spinal  trouble  (not  tubercular),  each  1 21 

OTHER  INFECTIOUS  DISEASES:  Pneumonia,  4;  malaria,  3;  dysen- 
tery, 3;  typhoid  fever,  2;  influenza,  erysipelas,  and  glan- 
ders, each  i 15 

DISEASES  OF  ORGANS  OTHER  THAN  HEART:  Bright's  disease,  6; 
bronchitis,  5;  lung  trouble,  2;  ulceration  of  the  stomach, 
2;  gall  stones,  nephritis,  bladder  trouble,  and  liver  trouble, 
each  i 19 

ALL  OTHER  DEFECTS  AND  DISEASES:  Lead  poisoning,  2;  varicose 
veins,  2;  pernicious  anaemia,  cleft  palate,  and  defective 
speech,  each  i 7 

DOUBTFUL:  Asthma,  6;  dropsy,  3;  catarrh,  2;  men  known  to 

be  ill  but  exact  nature  of  trouble  not  known,  5 16 


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TABLE     16.— FORTY-EIGHT     INSANE,     FEEBLE-MINDED 
AND  EPILEPTIC    ADDITIONAL  HANDICAPS 

Insane:  Epilepsy,  5;  paralysis,  4;  old  age,  4;  tuberculosis,  3; 
rheumatism,  2;  locomotor  ataxia,  2;  syphilis,  leg  off, 
broken  arm,  deaf,  defective  speech,  rupture,  and  ill 
health,  each  i.  (Four  men  had  more  than  one  additional 
handicap.) 27 

Epileptic:  Slightly  insane,  4;  mentally  weak,  paralysis,  tuber- 
culosis, rupture,  leg  off,  hip  injured,  feet  frozen,  and  ill 
health,  each  I.  (One  man  had  more  than  one  additional 
handicap.) 12 

Feeble-minded:  III  health,  5;  collar  bone  broken,  hand  hurt, 

deaf  and  defective  speech,  each  i 9 

Total 48 


TABLE  17.— INSANE  MEN.  TRADES  AND  OCCUPATIONS 
In  Skilled  Trades:  Machinist,  2;  carpenter,  barber,  electrician, 

stone  cutter,  painter,  and  switchman,  each  i 8 

In  Partly  Skilled  Trades:  Packer,  miner,  farmer,  fireman, 

soldier,  and  cook,  each  i 6 

Clerical  workers,  6;  salesmen,  4 10 

In  Professions:  Physicians,  2;  lawyers,  2;  draughtsmen,  2; 

minister,  actor,  teacher,  civil   engineer,   and  journalist, 

each  i ii 

In  Business:  Merchant,  i i 

In  Unskilled  Occupations:  Laborers,  5;  odd  jobs,  2;  fisherman, 

porter,  and  peddler,  each  i 10 

No  work  record,  i i 

Occupation  not  known,  5 5 

Total 52 


29I 


HOMELESS    MEN 


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294 


APPENDICES 


TABLE  20.— OCCUPATIONS  OF  THE  1000  HOMELESS  MEN 
(Seepage  135) 


A.  PROFESSIONAL  MEN 

Physicians 10 

Teachers 7 

Actors 6 

Ministers  (one  ex-priest)  ....     5 

Druggists 6 

Lawyers 5 

Civil  Engineers 5 

Newspaper  men 4 

Architects 2 

Draftsmen 2 

Dentists 2 

Lecturers 2 

Veterinary  Surgeon 

Organist  and  musician 

Inventor 

Sculptor 

Chemist 

Writer.. 


Total 


B.  BUSINESS  MEN,  ETC. 
Owned  and  managed 

Saloon 

Lake  boat 

Restaurant 

Hotel 

Grocery 

Notion  and  Confection- 
ery store 

Delicatessen 

*Not  known  . . 


Manufacturers  of 

Soap 

Carriages 

Trunks 

*Not   known  . . 


Brokers 3 

Insurance  agents 3 

Theatrical  agents i 

Carried  forward 22 

*  Letters  of  reference  stated: 
"Once  a  prosperous  merchant 
with  business  of  his  own." 


Brought  forward 22 

Theatrical  managers i 

Advertising  business 2 

Real  estate  business .... 
Mail  order  business.  .  .  . 

Contractor 

Photographer 

Silk  buyer 

Horse  dealer 

Total .  . 


33 

C.     CLERICAL     WORKERS     AND 
SALESMEN 

Clerical  or  Office  Workers 
(Including  12  bookkeepers, 
2  expert  accountants,  and 
5  stenographers,  also  bank 
clerks,  etc.) 75 

*Salesmen 39 

Total.  .  .  .  114 


D.  SKILLED  WORKERS! 

Printers 13 

Machinists 18 

Painters 28 

Carpenters 14 

Iron  workers 8 

Bakers 8 

Carried  forward 89 

*  Among  these  dry  goods 
salesmen  were  the  most  numer- 
ous, grocery  salesmen,  next. 

t  It  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  although  213  men  are  listed 
as  having  been  in  skilled  trades  a 
very  considerable  number  of 
these  had  not  worked  at  their 
trades  for  many  years.  Old  men, 
sick  men,  cripples,  drunkards, 
and  confirmed  wanderers  are 
among  them.  In  the  group  too 
are  men  who  were  unable  to  hold 
positions  because  of  incompe- 
tence. Often  in  reply  to  our 
letters  to  employers  we  would  re- 


295 


HOMELESS    MEN 


Brought  forward 89  Brought  forward 127 

Blacksmiths 8      Metal  polishers 5 

Cabinet  makers 7       Engineers 5 

Shoe  cutters 6       Switchmen 5 

Tailors 7      Steel  workers 3 

Stone  cutters 5      Wood  workers 3 

Barbers 5       Leather  workers 3 

Plumbers 3 

Carried  forward 127       Bricklayers 3 

Cigarmakers 3 

ceive  word  that  a  man  was  "a      Upholsterers 3 

poor  workman";  "incompetent";       Electricians 3 

"steady  but  not  a  good  machin-      Tinners 2 

ist"  or  similar  comment  which       Boilermakers 2 

accounted  for  the  unemployment      Cobblers 2 

of  so-called  "skilled"  workers.  Bridge  builders 2 

In  fairness,  however,  to  many  (structural  iron  workers) 

of  the  men  in  this  group  as  well      Coopers 2 

as  to  others  listed  in  these  tables      Silversmiths 2 

showing  the  employment  of  the      Candymakers 2 

thousand,    it    should    be    stated       Book  binders 2 

that  although  very  capable  and      Gardeners 2 

highly    skilled    men    sometimes      Telegraph  operators 2 

applied  to  us  for  aid,  their  need       Weavers 2 

of  help  was  often   purely  acci-       Brass  worker 

dental     and     very     temporary.       Brewer 

The  fact  that  they  were  at  some      Cameo  cutter 

time  obliged  to  apply  for  cjiari-      Chimney  builder 

table  aid  and  that  they  are  in-       Dyer 

eluded  in  a  group  of  homeless       Furrier 

men  many  of  whom  were  chron-      Galvanized  iron  worker 

ically   dependent   and    parasitic       Harness  maker 

must  not  be  interpreted  to  mean       Hat  maker 

that  they  were  doomed   to  re-      Lace  maker 

main  among  such  men.      Given      Plaster  cast  maker 

reasonable  opportunities   to  re-      Plasterer 

cover  their  footing  practically  all       Piano  tuner 

the  skilled  and  trained  workers       Roofer 

who   were   not   degenerate   and       Saddle  maker 

addicted  to  vice,  were  able  again       Shoe  laster 

— and  in  many  cases  soon  again      Stove  maker 

— to    become    self    supporting.       Tanner 

Not    infrequently    we    received       Wax  worker 

letters  from  one  to  three  years       Window  trimmer 

afterward   from   men   whom   we      Watchmaker 

had  aided,  telling  us  that  they      Engraver 

were  doing  well;     had  married;       Lithographer 

had  savings  accounts,  etc.,  and      R.  R.  conductor 

returning  to  the  office  small  sums       Hotel  steward 

which  had  been  loaned  or  given  to 

them  when  they  were  in  trouble.          Total 213 


APPENDICES 


E.  PARTLY  SKILLED 

Soldiers 14 

Sailors 14 

*Cooks 12 

Miners 9 

Farmers f8 

Machinist  helpers 4 

Coachmen 4 

Railroad  porters 7 

Firemen 3 

Nurses 3 

Elevator  men 2 

Pressers 2 

Hod  carriers 2 

Brakeman 

Bill  poster 

House  mover 

Lineman 

Packer 

Soda  water  clerk.  . 


90 


^Partly  skilled   employes  in 
factories 

Bicycle 2 

Powder 2 

Electrical  Supply 2 

Cotton 2 

Mattress.  .  .  2 


10 


Carried  forward 100 

*  These  were  not  trained 
"chefs"  but  men  with  no  special 
training  who  drifted  into  the 
work  by  becoming  cooks  at  R.  R. 
construction,  lumber  camps,  etc., 
and  later  continued  as  cooks  in 
cheap  restaurants  and  saloons. 

f  These  were  middle  aged  or 
old  men  who  had  once  been 
managing  farmers.  Farm  labor- 
ers are  included  with  unskilled 
.  laborers. 

J  A  number  of  factory  workers 
are  included  with  the  skilled 
workers  listed  on  p.  295.  Noneof 


Brought  forward 100 

Carriage 

Chandelier 

Furniture 

Glass 

Brush 

Clothing 

Shoe 

Woven  wire 

Not  known  . 


Total . 


109 


F.  MISCELLANEOUS 

Professional  athlete i 

"Gentlemen" §3 

Magician i 

Magnetic  healer i 

Horse  breaker i 


Total 


those  listed  in  the  above  table 
were  more  than  partly  skilled. 
The  two  mattress  factory  em- 
ployes, for  instance,  were  young 
Roumanian  immigrants  who  had 
been  students  in  their  own  coun- 
try and  who  had  had  but  short 
experience  in  the  mattress  fac- 
tory which  they  entered  when 
they  came  to  Chicago. 

§  These  were  men  of  good 
family,  well  educated  and  refined. 
All  three  were  foreign-born  and 
were  landowners  at  home,  not 
wage-earners.  It  would  not  be 
fair  to  list  them  as  having  no 
work  record,  at  least  one  of  the 
three  having  managed  a  large 
estate  for  his  father  for  a  number 
of  years,  but  it  is  difficult  to  list 
the  sort  of  work  in  which  they 
had  been  employed,  when  they 
had  worked. 


297 


HOMELESS   MEN 


G.  UNSKILLED 

Laborers *244 

Newsboys  or  men 15 

Houseman! '° 

Canvassers 9 

Waiters 9 

Hotel  employes 9 

Restaurant  work 12 

Janitors 7 

Peddlers ,  6 

Odd  Jobs 4 

Messenger  boys 4 

Watchmen 2 

Fisherman i 

Hospital  orderly i 

Bootblack.  .  i 


Total 


334 


*  A  number  of  men  are  listed 
as  laborers  who  have  done  no 
work  for  years — drunkards, 
tramps,  old  men  and  others. 
Teamsters  are  included  with 
these.  Ninety-six,  or  almost  43 
per  cent,  of  the  men  listed  as 
laborers  were  employed  in  out- 
door seasonal  occupations. 

t  The  occupations  which  are 
bracketed  are  those  most  com- 
monly chosen  by  once  able- 
bodied  and  more  skilled  work- 
men as  they  drift  downward  be- 
cause of  drink  or  physical  in- 


H.  No  WORK  RECORD 
School    (21)    or    college    (2) 

boys 23 

Criminals,     tramps,     feeble- 
minded and  others 45 


Total 


68 


WORK      RECORD 
KNOWN 


NOT 


ability.  Many  hundreds  of  men 
were  employed  in  such  occupa- 
tions when  they  applied  to  the 
Bureau  for  aid,  but  these  were 
not  the  trades  or  occupations  of 
their  most  productive  years. 
They  have  therefore  been  listed 
under  the  latter  and  only  the 
men  for  whom  canvassing,  ped- 
dling, etc.,  was  found  to  be  the 
chief  and  not  the  secondary  oc- 
cupation have  been  listed  as 
above. 

t  This  includes  men  who  are 
entered  as  "Soldiers,"  but  who 
are  Civil  War  veterans  who  have 
probably  done  other  work  since 
the  war.  There  are  also  five  in- 
stances in  which  no  entry  of  a 
man's  business  was  made  upon 
the  record,  or  could  be  dis- 
covered from  letters  of  reference. 


298 


APPENDICES 


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TABLE  22.— CHRONIC  BEGGARS.     PHYSICAL  AND  MEN- 
TAL CONDITION 

Condition  Number  Per  Cent 

In  good  health* 44  33.0 

Diseased,  defective  or  maimed 91  67.0 


Total 135  loo.o 

DISEASES,  DEFECTS,  ETC.,  OF  THE  91  BEGGARS 
Crippled  or  maimed  by  accident  or  from  birth:  (i)  Tempo- 
rary— hand  injured,  4;  leg  injured,  i;  foot  broken,  i;  arm 
broken,  3.  Total,  9.  (2)  Permanent — leg  and  arm  off,  2; 
both  legs  off,  4;  one  leg  off,  n;  one  arm  off,  5;  one  foot 
off,  2;  deformed,  i;  thumb  off,  i;  one  or  more  fingers 

off,  4 39 

Crippled  or  maimed  by  disease:  locomotor  ataxia,  i;  paralysis, 

12;  rheumatism,  4;  venereal  diseases,  2;  tuberculosis,  i.     20 

Blind,   10;   deaf,  2 12 

Insane,  5;  feeble-minded,  2;  epileptic,  2 9 

With  defective  speech,  2;  syphilitic,  2;  tuberculous,  4;  can- 
cer, i;  chorea,  i;  rupture,  i;  general  debility  from 
drink,  drugs,  age  or  other  causes,  9 20 

Total  instances ioof 

*  Eight  of  these  men  claimed  illness  or  crippling  which  they  did 
not  have. 

t  Nine  men  suffered  two  or  more  or^fie  above  defects  or  diseases. 

TABLE  23.— OCCUPATIONS  ONCE  FOLLOWED  BY  CHRONIC 
BEGGARS  OF  CLASS  II   (Seep.  173) 

Skilled  workers:  Machinists,  2;  painters,  2;  carpenters,  2; 
switchmen,  2;  telegraph  operator,*  tailor,  metal  polisher, 
glass  blower,  wood  finisher,  iron  worker  and  type  setter, 
each  i 15 

Partly  skilled:  Canvasser,  insurance  agent,  factory  employe,  and 
cook,  each  i 4 

Wholly  unskilled 25 

Total 44 

*  Man's  own  statement.     Not  proven.     Doubtful. 

300 


APPENDICES 


TABLE  24.— BRIEF  DIGESTS  OF  CASES  OF  THE  11  BEG- 
GARS  OF  CLASS  III   (See  p.  179) 


Na- 

Physical 

Where 

No. 

Age 

tion- 

CM. 

few** 

Comments 

ality 

Ho* 

UP 

51 

ai 

Amer. 

Good 

Chicago 

A  confirmed  wanderer;  first  left  home  at 

age  of  7;  has  been  all  over  the  world; 

steals  sometimes;  has  been  in   jail  for 

vagrancy  several  times.    Illiterate,  en- 

tirely   untrained.       Parents  poor  but 

self-respecting,  and  do  not  drink. 

537 

Irish 

Good 

New  York 

Can  read  a  little;    drinks  to  excess;    is  a 

City 

confirmed  wanderer.         Admits  seven 

consecutive  years  of  idleness.     Nothing 

known  of  parents. 

785 

36 

Amer. 

Good 

Chicago 

Nothing  known  of  parents.       Admits  six 

years  without  any  work;  claims  to  have 
occasionally  done  odd  jobs  previous  to 

that,  but  we  cannot  learn  that  he  has 

done  anything  but  beg  in  15  years.      In 

Bridewell  three  times  for   vagrancy. 

Not  a  tramp. 

566 

19 

Amer. 

Good 

Orphanage 

Untrained,  lazy,  a  confirmed  wanderer 

and  chronic  beggar.       Has  been  in  jail 

and  work  house. 

178 

19 

Amer. 

Good 

Chicago 
and  New 

A  wanderer,  begs  incessantly  in  all  cities. 
Claims    to    have   once    worked    as   a 

York 

messenger  boy,  but  had  been  idle  for 

City 

five  years  previous  to  our  acquaintance 

with  him. 

833 

17 

Ger. 

Good 

Orphanage 

Untrained,    no    work    record;     rather  a 

158 

Amer. 

Leg  off 

Chicago 

clever  beggar;  peddles  to  screen  begging. 
Untrained;    newsboy;    was  given  leg  and 

and     or- 

sold it;  not  vicious  but  a  chronic  beggar. 

215 

21 

Eng. 

Good 

phanage 
New  York 

Brief  work  record  as  a  newsboy;   a  wan- 

917 

12 

Amer. 

Slightly 

Chicago 

derer  and  beggar  for  years. 
Runs  away  from  home  and  begs  on  street; 

rnfn-6111 

parents  respectable  people.         Bureau 
finally  sent  boy  to  Home  for  Feeble- 

tally 

minded. 

604 

22 

Amer. 

Crippled 

Not  known 

Injured  while  tramping.        A  confirmed 

leg 

wanderer;   drinks;    begs. 

485 

17 

Amer. 

Good 

New  York 

A  confirmed  tramp  and  beggar.     Father 

and 

begs  also;  they  go  around  together. 

Chicago 

301 


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302 


APPENDICES 


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HOMELESS    MEN 


TABLE    26.— TRAMPS.     PHYSICAL  AND    MENTAL 
CONDITION 


Condition 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Good 

86 

1Q  O 

Defective                .         ... 

114 

?y-w 
61  o 

Total 

22O 

IOO  O 

Specific  Form  of  Handicap 

Number 

Per  Cent 

Insane  feeble-minded  or  epileptic 

17 

I  }  O 

Crippled  or  maimed 

4O 

29  o 

Blind  or  deaf 

6 

c  O 

Tuberculous 

i  - 

I  I  O 

Suffering  from  chronic  or  temporary  disease  or 
illness  of  any  other  sort 

47 

3C    O 

Physically  handicapped  from  use  of  drugs  or 
alcohol 

4 

3  o 

Physically  handicapped  by  age 

c 

A   O 

Total  in  defective  health  or  condition  .... 

134 

IOO.O 

TABLE  27.— LOCATION  (URBAN  OR  COUNTRY)  OF  PRE- 
VIOUS   RESIDENCE,    CHARACTER   OF    HOMES,    AND 
FAMILY  RELATIONS  OF  RUNAWAY  BOYS 
A.  LOCATION  OF  HOME  (CITY  OR  COUNTRY) 


Location 

Run- 
aways 

Other 

Total 

Per  Cent 

From  cities*             

38 

34 

72 

61.6 

From  townsf    .  .        

22 

1 

3O 

25.6 

From  country       

2 

8 

IO 

8.5 

Not  known                 

4' 

5 

4-3 

Total 

63 

54 

I  17 

IOO.O 

*  Twenty-four  boys  were  residents  of  Chicago;  48  came  from  other 
cities, — 9  were  from  St.  Louis,  6  from  Cincinnati,  4  from  Philadelphia 
and  the  homes  of  the  rest  were  scattered  from  London,  England,  to 
San  Francisco,  California. 

t  New  York  state  furnished  as  many  of  these  boys  from  small 
towns  as  did  Illinois. 

304 


APPENDICES 
B.  CHARACTER  OF  HOMES 


Character  of  Home  * 

Run- 
aways 

Other 

fold 

Per  Cent 

Good  
Medium  
Poor 

]'e 

12 

I  1 

| 

43 

27 

12 

37.0 

2}.0 

10.0 

Not  known  
Without  homes 

7 

2 

a!t 

I 

28 

7t 

24.0 

6.0 

Total 

6* 

54 

1  17 

100  o 

*  For  definition  of  terms  "good,"  "medium,"  and  "poor,"  as  used 
in  this  classification,  see  pages  244-245. 

t  We  were  familiar  with  the  character  of  the  homes  of  more  of  the 
runaway  boys  than  of  others,  for  the  reason  that  these  boys  were,  as 
a  rule,  younger  and  the  effort  was  invariably  made  to  communicate 
with  their  families.  Investigation  of  the  homes  of  the  older  boys 
was  less  often  necessary  and  we  therefore  had  definite  knowledge  of 
the  character  of  the  homes  in  a  smaller  percentage  of  the  cases. 

\  Two  cases  not  verified. 


C.   FAMILY   RELATIONS*  OF  HOMELESS,  VAGRANT,  AND   RUNAWAY 

BOYS 


Family  Relations 

Run- 
aways 

Other 

Total 

Per  Cent 

Orphansf 

12! 

1:1 

2c 

21  O 

Not  known  

14 

i2 

16  o 

Parents  living:  Father  only  
Mother  only  
Both  .    .    . 

12 

,1 

7 

5 

1  1 

19 
•4 

A  1 

1  6.0 

12.0 

iC    O 

Total 

fa 

C4 

117 

IOO  O 

*  Verified  cases — not  the  boys'  statements.  Where  there  was  a 
reasonable  doubt  of  the  facts  after  effort  to  verify,  the  case  has  been 
.included  under  heading  "Not  known." 

t  Fifteen  orphans  or  half  orphans  had  step-parents  (five  step- 
fathers and  ten  stepmothers). 

t  These  were  mainly  boys  who  had  run  away  from  foster  homes 
in  which  they  had  been  placed  from  institutions. 

20  305 


HOMELESS    MEN 


MINNEAPOLIS  HOMELESS  MEN  (See  Appendix  C,  p.  330) 

TABLE  28.— GENERAL   DATA  CONCERNING  200  MINNE- 
APOLIS HOMELESS  MEN 

A.  AGES,  BY  GROUPS 

10  to  19 17 

20  to  29 65 

30  to  39 40 

401049 27 

50  to  59 28 

60  to  69 10 

70  or  over 13 


2;  Alabama,  California,  Colo- 
rado, Florida,  Missouri,  Ne- 
braska, North  Dakota,  Oregon, 
and  Virginia,  each  i ;  not  known, 
10.  Total,  89. 


Total 


200 


B.  NATIVITY* 

American  (4  Negro) 

Canadian 

English 9 

Irish 8 

Scotch 7 

Scandinavian 38 

German 1 1 

Other 29 

Not  known i 

Total 200 

*The  nativity  of  the  parents 
of  these  men  was  as  follows: 
American,  59;  Canadian,  5; 
English,  n;  Irish,  17;  Scotch, 
10;  Scandinavian,  44;  German, 
18;  other,  34;  not  known,  2. 

fThe  birth  states  of  the 
Americans  among  the  Minneapo- 
lis homeless  men  were  as  follows: 

Minnesota,  12;  New  York, 
n;  Iowa,  9;  Illinois,  8;  Massa- 
chusetts, 6;  Pennsylvania,  6; 
Wisconsin,  5;  Michigan,  3; 
Georgia,  Indiana,  Kentucky, 
New  Hampshire,  and  Ohio,  each 


C.  CONJUGAL  CONDITION 

Single 147 

Married 19 

Widowed 18 

Separated 16 


Total 


.200 


D.  LENGTH  OF  TIME  IN  MIN- 
NEAPOLIS   BEFORE    APPLI- 
CATION 

i  day 33 

i  day  to  i  week 40 

i  week  to  i  month 37 

i  month  to  6  months 30 

6  months  to  i  year 5 

1  year  to  2  years 9 

2  years  or  over 42 

Not  known 4 

Total ....  .  .200 


E.  KINDS  OF  APPLICATIONS 

Lodging i 

Food i 

Work i 

Transportation 

Medical  relief 

Money 

Other  aid .  . 


::::::::  a 

12 

Clothing 6 


306 


APPENDICES 


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NEAPOLIS 

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TABLE  29.-OCCUF 

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307 


HOMELESS    MEN 


TABLE  30.— MINNEAPOLIS  HOMELESS  MEN.     PHYSICAL 
AND  MENTAL  CONDITION 

Number    Per  Cent 

In  good  physical  and  mental  condition 79  40 

In  defective  physical  or  mental  condition.  ...  121  60 

Total 200  100 

Defective  condition  temporary 22 

Defective  condition  permanent 73 

Not  known  which 26 

Total  number  of  men  defective 121 

Deformed,  Crippled,*  Injured,  and  Maimed:  Both  feet  off,  2; 
parts  of  both  feet  off,  2;  one  leg  off,  9;  injured  hip,  2; 
leg  broken,  2;  right  arm  off,  4;  hand  injured,  2;  club  foot, 
one  foot  off,  injured  leg,  ankle  crushed,  broken  arm,  bro- 
ken wrist,  hand  deformed,  thumb  off,  crooked  spine, 
broken  clavicle,  severely  burned,  each  i 34 

Blind,  2;  blind  in  one  eye,  3;  diseased  eyes,  3;  deaf  and  dumb, 

2;  deaf,  2;  partly  deaf,  i 13 

Insane,  14;  feeble-minded,  4;  epileptic, 2 20 

Tuberculosis,  11;  rheumatism,  8;  venereal  diseases,  6;  paral- 
ysis, 5;  cancer,  2;  blood-poisoning,  2;  heart  disease,  3; 
brights  disease,  ulcer  of  the  stomach,  typhoid  fever,  and 
erysipelas,  each  i 4 ' 

Convalescent,  3;  feeble  from  age,  9;  frail— reason  not  known,  2; 
ill  from  excessive  use  of  alcohol  (2)  morphine  (i),  3;  vari- 
cose veins,  eczema,  boils,  and  nervous  prostration,  each  i ; 

ill  (nature of  trouble  not  known),  4 25 

Total  defects,  133;  individual  men,  121. 

*  This  number  includes  several  cases  where  men  lost  limbs  through 
disease.  If  the  cases  of  5  men  suffering  from  rheumatism  and  5 
from  paralysis  are  added  to  the  34  crippled  from  other  causes  listed 
above  it  makes  the  total  of  crippling  from  all  causes  in  the  group 
44  instances  (43  men). 


3o8 


APPENDICES 


TABLE    31.— MINNEAPOLIS    HOMELESS    MEN.    TRADES 
AND  OCCUPATIONS 

Clerical  Workers  and  Salesmen:  Clerical  workers,  4;  salesmen, 

6 10 

In  Skilled  Trades:  Carpenters,  7;  tailors,  4;  machinists,  3;  iron 
moulders,  3;  butchers,  3;  harness  makers,  2;  boiler- 
makers,  2;  cigar  makers,  2;  candy  makers,  2;  painters, 
2;  telegraph  operator,  dyer,  baker,  wood  turner,  printer, 
plumber,  saw-filer,  upholsterer,  shoemaker,  blacksmith, 
and  tobacco  packer,  each  i 41 

In  Partly  Skilled  Trades:  Sailors,  4;  cooks,  4;  factory  employes, 
4;  miners,  3;  switchmen,  3;  soldiers,  2;  machinist  helper, 
drug  clerk,  and  steward,  each  i 23 

Business  Men:  In  commission  business,  i ;  in  real  estate  business, 

i 2 

Professional  Men:  Teachers,  4;  writer,  minister,  druggist,  and 

actor,  each  i 8 

In  Unskilled  Occupations:  Laborers,  82;  farmers,  7;  teamsters, 
3;  peddlers,  3;  waiters,  2;  porter,  office  boy,  orderly,  ser- 
vant, and  odd  jobs,  each  i 102 

Miscellaneous:  Street  preacher,  i ;    horse  trader,  i 2 

No  Work  Record:   In  school,  2;    in  college,  i;  never  worked,  8.     1 1 

Not  known i 

Total .  .  .  200 


309 


HOMELESS    MEN 


TABLE  32.— MINNEAPOLIS  HOMELESS  MEN.     DATA  CON- 


No. 

Na- 
tion- 
ality 

tion 

Age 

TRADE  OR  OCCUPATION 

Nature  of  Defect 

Before 
Accident 

After 
Accident 

I 

Ger. 

Single 

57 

Boiler  maker 

Peddler 

Right    leg    off    at 
thigh. 

2 

Amer. 

Single 

20 

Seasonal       la- 

Seasonal 

Left  hand  injured. 

borer 

laborer 

3 

Dane 

Single 

27 

Seasonal       la- 

None 

Left  leg  off. 

borer 

4 

Amer. 

Single 

29 

Seasonal       la- 

Laborer 

Hip  injured. 

borer 

5 

Cana. 

Single 

52 

Seasonal        la- 

None 

Arm   broken    (man 

borer 

also  insane). 

6 

Amer. 

Single 

21 

Seasonal       la- 

None 

Hip  injured. 

borer 

7 

Amer. 

Single 

35 

Carpenter, 

Nonet 

Part  of  one  foot  off. 

seasonal     la- 

borer 

8 

Amer. 

Single 

23 

Seasonal       la- 

Nonet 

Right  leg  broken. 

borer 

9 

Amer. 

Single 

34 

Marine  fireman 

Laborer 

Clavicle  broken. 

seasonal     la- 

borer 

IO 

Dane 

Marriedt 

27 

Laborer 

Laborer 

Ankle  crushed. 

II 

Amer. 

Single 

25 

Seasonal       la- 
borer 

Nonet 

Parts  of  both  feet 
amputated. 

*  Three  men  not  here  listed  claimed  industrial  accidents  but  were  hurt  in 
other  ways. 

t  Family  in  Europe. 
I  Accident  recent. 


310 


APPENDICES 


CERNING     ELEVEN     INDUSTRIAL    ACCIDENT    CASES* 


Permanent  \ 

Temporary  \ 

How  Accident  Occurred 

Dam 
ages 

Comments 

I 

In  boiler  works. 

None 

Man  drinks  to  excess  but  is 

I 

In  paper  mill. 

None 

generally  self-supporting. 
Man  drinks  to  excess  but  is 

I 

In  lumber  camp. 

None 

generally  self-supporting. 
Man  drinks  to  excess  but  is 

I 

In  lumber  camp  (fell  off  load 

None 

generally  self-supporting. 
Drinks  and  wanders  but  gen- 

of logs). 

erally  self-supporting. 

I 

In  lumber  camp  (struck  by 

None 

Asso.    Char,    sent    man    to 

I 

falling  tree). 
In  lumber  camp  (chopped  in 

None 

Insane  Hospital. 
This  man  goes  around  beg- 

the hip). 

ging  with  his  father  who  is 

blind    and    crippled  —  both 

drink  to  excess. 

I 

In  lumber  camp  (both  feet 

None 

Refuses  light  work  offered  by 

frozen). 

Asso.  Char.     Lost  track  of 

him. 

I 

Injured  doing  general  work 

None 

Drinks  to  excess  and  begs. 

on  a  farm. 

I 

Hurt  while  shoveling  snow. 

None 

Generally       self-supporting; 

was  given  employment  by 

Asso.  Char. 

I 

Chunk  of  ice   fell   on   foot 

Noneg 

A  good  man  —  generally  self- 

when    man    were    cutting 

supporting. 

ice. 

i 

Feet   frozen  while   working 

None|| 

Drinks   but   not   to   excess; 

for  N.  P.  R.  R. 

generally  self-supporting. 

g  Company  contributed  small  amounts  several  times. 

||  Company  paid  hospital  expenses  and  fare  to  Minneapolis. 


HOMELESS   MEN 

TABLE   33— MINNEAPOLIS   HOMELESS   MEN.     DATA 
CRIPPLED  AND  MAIMED    (Ex- 


No. 

Na- 
tion- 
ality 

°SSaf 

tion 

Age 

TRADE  OR  OCCUPATION 

Nature  of  Defect 

Before 
Accident 

After 
Accident 

I 

Swed. 

Single 

36 

Seasonal  la- 

None* 

Right  hand  off. 

borer 

a 

Dane 

Single 

23 

Laborer 

Casual      la- 

Right   leg    off    at 

borer 

knee. 

3 

Irish 

Separated 

70 

Seasonal  la- 

Left hand  deformed. 

borer  f 

4 

Ger. 

Single 

54 

Harness 

Club-foot. 

maker 

5 

Amer. 

Single 

31 

Bookkeeper 

Bookkeeper 

"Crooked  spine." 

6 

Norwe. 

Single 

S3 

Laborer 

Porter 

Left  leg  off. 

7 

Ger. 

Single 

40 

Tailor 

Peddler 

Right    leg    off    at 

thigh. 

8 

Eng. 

Separated 

32 

Laborert 

None 

Severely  burned  all 

over  body. 

9 

Scot. 

Married 

42 

Laborer 

Casual      la- 

Wrist broken. 

borer 

IO 

Amer. 

Single 

24 

None 

None 

Left  leg  off  above 

knee. 

II 

Swed. 

Single 

42 

Laborer 

Peddler 

Both  feet  off. 

12 

Ger. 

Single 

40 

Farmer 

Farmer 

Both  feet  and  one 

thumb  off. 

13 

Swed. 

Married 

SO 

Laborer 

Peddler* 

Parts  of  both  feet 

off. 

M 

Amer. 

Single 

25 

Telegraph 

Telegraph 

Left  leg  off. 

operator 

operator 

IS 

Amer. 

Single 

19 

Cigar  maker 

None 

Left  leg  off. 

16 

Amer. 

Single 

42 

Laborer 

Peddler 

Right  arm  off  and 

man  syphilitic. 

17 

Swiss 

Widowed 

72 

Commission 

Commission 

Right  arm  off. 

man 

man 

18 

Amer. 

Single 

28 

Seasonal  la- 

Seasonal la- 

Arm injured  and  in- 

borer 

borer 

fected. 

19 

Amer. 

Widowed 

55 

Switchman 

None* 

Right  arm  off. 

20 

Finn 

Single 

29 

Laborer 

None 

Left  leg  off. 

21 

Amer. 

Single 

43 

Seasonal  la- 

Laborer 

Sore  on  right  hand. 

borer 

22 

Amer. 

Single 

27 

Shoemaker 

Casual      la- 

Left leg  "lame." 

borer 

*  Accident  recent. 

t  Doubtful.     No  work  record  for  many  years. 


312 


APPENDICES 

CONCERNING  TWENTY-TWO  DEFORMED,  INJURED, 
eluding    Industrial   Accident  Cases) 


Perma- 

nent 

Cause 

Comments                         » 

Yea 

Run  over  by  train  — 
"own  fault."      Not 

Man  a  tramp  and  a  hard  drinker;    has  been 
begging  since  the  accident.     Offered  perma- 

working at  the  time. 

nent  work  and  refused  it. 

Yea 

Run   over    by    train 

Drinks.     Bad  record. 

four    years   before. 

"Own  fault." 

Yes 

Born  so. 

Tramp,  criminal,  beggar.     Frequently  in  jail. 

Deserted  family. 

m 

Born  so. 

A  hard  drinker,  and  long  a  "ne'er  do  well." 

Not 

Not  known  (tubercu- 

Given brace  by  Asso.  Char.     Able  to  work 

known 
Yes 

lar?) 
Tubercular  bone. 
Tubercular  bone. 

again.     Generally  self-supporting. 
Man  also  syphilitic;  generally  self-supporting. 
A  hard  drinker  and  a  tramp. 

No 

Burned     at     tramps' 

Deserted  his  family;    tramping    four    years; 

camp  fire. 

drinks  to  excess. 

No 

A  fall  when  drunk. 

Has  lost  many  positions  through  drink. 

Yes 

A  syphilitic  wound  on 

Tramp,    beggar.      Never    worked.      Several 

leg.                                   times  in  iail. 

Yes 

Feet  frozen. 

Drinks;   does  not  beg;   relatives  assist  some- 

what. 

Yes 

Frozen. 

Owns  property.     Has  good  income  but  came 

to  Minneapolis  to  beg. 

Yes 

Frozen. 

Begs.    In  jail  for  vagrancy  several  times. 

Yes 

Run  over  while  steal- 

Restless,  hot-tempered,   unsteady,  no  vices. 

ing  ride  on  R.R. 

Asso.  Char,  secured  permanent  position  for 

him. 

Yes 

Run  over  by  train.  J 

Criminal,    tramp.     Often   in   jail.     Lost    leg 
when  fourteen  years  old. 

Yes 

Arm   amputated   be- 

Tramp.    Hard  drinker.     Arm  off  eight  years. 

cause     of     "blood- 

poisoning"  (syph- 
ilis?) 

Yes 

Cause  not  known. 

Lost  arm  in  his  youth  in  Switzerland.     A  fine 

man.     Self-supporting. 

No 

Cause  not  known. 

Man  a  tramp  and  hard  drinker. 

Yes 

Cause  not  known.? 

Unable  to  use  other  arm  because  of  neuritis. 

Sent  to  Poorhouse.     A  pretty  good  sort  of  a 

man.     No  vices. 

Yes 

Cause  not  known.J 

A  tramp.     Little  known  regarding  him.     All 

references  false. 

No 

Cause  not  known. 

Drinks  to  excess  occasionally,  but  a  pretty 

good  sort  of  man.     Usually  self-supporting. 

Not 

Cause  not  known. 

Sickly.     A  fair  record  but  never  holds  jobs 

known 

long. 

Suspect  tramping  accident. 

Attending  physician  says  "not  an  industrial  accident." 


313 


APPENDIX  B 

THE  CHEAP  LODGING  HOUSES 
AND  THEIR  RELATION  TO  THE  HEALTH  OF  HOMELESS 

MEN* 

The  lodging  house  environment,  as  we  have  seen  in 
this  book,  plays  such  an  important  part  in  the  lives 
and  destinies  of  the  homeless  men  and  boys  who  inhabit 
them,  that  it  seems  worth  while  to  give  a  fairly  detailed 
account  of  the  houses. 

Twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ago  there  were  few  if 
any  cheap  lodging  houses  of  the  types  with  which  we 
are  now  familiar;  and  today  there  is  no  more  striking 
evidence  of  the  rapid  and  enormous  growth  in  the 
number  of  "homeless"  men  in  the  country  than  is 
shown  by  the  increase  both  in  number  and  in  size 
of  the  buildings  erected  for  their  accommodation  in 
our  cities.  Formerly,  unattached  workingmen  in  large 
cities,  as  a  rule,  roomed  in  private  houses  where  they 
also  boarded,  or  in  small  cheap  hotels  somewhere  near 
their  places  of  employment.  It  was  not  until  the  latter 
eighties  and  the  early  nineties  that  large  buildings  put 
up  exclusively  for  the  accommodation  of  homeless  men 
began  to  make  their  appearance  in  Chicago  and  New 
York,  and  it  has  been  only  since  1900  that  these  have 
also  become  numerous  in  the  small  cities  of  the  country. 

The  evils  they  present  are  both  physical  and  moral. 

*See  also  Reinstatement  of  Vagrants  through  Municipal  Lodging 
Houses,  by  the  author,  in  Proceedings  National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction,  1903,  pp.  404-411. 

314 


A  ROOM  IN  ONE  OF  THE  "IRONSIDES" 

Room  6  by  6  by  7  feet  high,  one  of  few  having  outer  air  and  light.     Wire  netting 
above,  supplemented  by  newspapers.     Sides  of  corrugated  iron. 


Third  floor.  Main  aisle,  showing  cross  ;i'>l<-  at  md  leading  to  fire  escape 
obstructed  by  stove.  Space  between  stove  and  corner  of  rooms  22  inches.  Main 
aisle  30  inches  wide. 


CUBICLE  LODGING  HOUSE 

One  of  cross  aisles  obstructed  by  posts.     Space  between  posts  and  wall  ot  rooms 

20  inches. 


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APPENDICES 

In  the  common  living  rooms  of  the  lodging  houses 
criminals,  life-long  vagrants,  and  the  most  degraded  and 
degenerate  specimens  of  humanity  mingle  with  men  who 
are  merely  unfortunate,  with  inexperienced  lads  from  the 
country  who  have  come  to  the  city  in  search  of  work, 
and  with  runaway  boys  in  their  most  impressionable 
period.  That  moral  deterioration  among  these  latter 
classes  should  in  many  instances  occur  is  inevitable. 
Moreover,  the  most  far-reaching  evil  influences  of  the 
lodging  houses  are  intangible  and  their  ultimate  harm- 
fulness  cannot  be  measured  or  even  estimated.  In 
addition,  however,  to  the  moral  unhealthfulness  that 
exists  in  practically  all  of  them,  and  that  plays  a  most 
important  part  in  the  manufacture  of  vagrants  which 
is  constantly  in  progress  in  America,  there  are,  in  most 
of  the  houses,  unsanitary  physical  conditions  which 
must  be  taken  into  account  if  one  is  to  understand  why 
so  many  homeless  men  are  weakened  and  diseased 
after  comparatively  short  residence  within  them.  It 
is  with  this  latter  feature  of  lodging  house  life  rather 
than  with  the  moral  evils  incident  to  it  that  this  study 
will  deal. 

The  cheap  lodging  houses  in  Chicago  are  mainly  of 
two  types:  the  dormitory  type,  which  was  the  earlier; 
and  the  small  room  type,  sometimes  known  as  the 
"cubicle"  or  "cell"  lodging  house,  which  is  more 
recent  and  today  more  generally  popular  with  the 
men. 

For  a  dormitory  lodging  house  a  large  building  is 
chosen, — usually  one  not  originally  built  for  the  pur- 
pose,— and  the  ground  floor  is  sub-let  for  a  store  or  a 
saloon.  In  some  houses,  however,  the  living  room  or 
general  assembly  room  for  the  lodgers  and  the  office  and 


HOMELESS    MEN 

perhaps  the  washrooms  besides,  are  found  on  the  ground 
floor.  Each  floor  above  the  first  is  devoted  wholly  to 
sleeping  purposes. 

According  to  the  law  in  Illinois,  there  must  be  a  space 
of  two  feet  horizontally  on  each  side  of  each  cot  or  bed 
in  lodging  house  sleeping  rooms;  but  very  little  atten- 
tion is  paid  to  this  law  in  the  majority  of  houses.  1 
have  seen  as  many  as  six  cots  standing  in  a  row  next 
each  other  without  any  space  between  them,  and 
dozens  of  others  in  the  same  room  standing  but  a  few 
inches  apart.  1  do  not  recall  a  single  dormitory  lodging 
house  in  which  beds  are  so  placed  as  to  allow  the  re- 
quired two  feet  of  air  space  on  every  side  (including 
the  head  and  foot)  of  each  bed. 

However,  in  spite  of  the  over-crowded  condition  of 
these  great  dormitory  rooms  it  should  be  possible  to 
ventilate  them  without  much  difficulty,  for  in  almost 
all  houses  an  entire  floor  is  given  up  to  the  sleepers  and 
each  floor  has  windows  at  front  and  back  if  not  (as  in 
corner  houses)  on  one  side  as  well.  But  for  several 
reasons  the  air  in  these  rooms  is  as  a  rule  very  far  from 
pure.  For  one  thing,  the  winters  in  Chicago  are  quite 
severe  and,  fuel  being  expensive,  it  is  not  economical 
for  lodging  house  keepers  to  lower  the  temperature  of 
their  sleeping  rooms  for  the  sake  of  ventilating  them. 
Moreover,  the  often  thinly-clad  lodgers  would  not  long 
patronize  a  house  whose  rooms  were  chilly,  and  with 
very  few  exceptions  homeless  men  seem  to  have  an 
aversion  to  fresh  air  which  is  even  greater  than  that 
which  the  tramp  is  popularly  supposed  to  have  to 
•  water.  No  matter  how  often  the  windows  may  be 
opened  by  an  employe  of  the  house  or  by  the  occasional 
"fresh  air  fiend"  that  strays  into  a  lodging  house,  some 

3.6 


APPENDICES 

man  in  the  room  will  soon  close  them.*  And  it  is  per- 
haps not  surprising  that  he  does  so,  at  least  in  winter, 
for  cots  are  usually  placed  within  a  foot  of  the  windows 
at  either  end  of  the  rooms  and  when  the  windows  are 
opened  the  men  who  occupy  beds  near  them  must  lie 
in  draughts  which  are  uncomfortable  if  not  actually 
dangerous. 

Another,  and  the  greatest  cause  of  impure  air  in 
many  of  the  dormitory  lodging  houses  is  the  fact  that 
toilet  rooms  with  partition  walls  not  reaching  to  the 
ceiling  open  directly  out  of  the  rooms  in  which  the 
men  sleep.  The  doors  of  these  toilet  rooms  are  usually 
open — are  often  fastened  back  by  the  men  in  order  that 
their  slamming  may  not  disturb  the  sleepers — and  the 
odors  that  pollute  the  air  in  some  of  the  houses  are 
intolerably  offensive. f 

However,  when  all  is  said  that  may  be  regarding 
the  unsanitary  conditions  and  the  impure  air  in  the 
dormitory  lodging  houses,  they  nevertheless  have 
advantages  in  these  regards  over  the  small  room  or 
cubicle  style  of  lodging  house  which,  as  before  stated, 
is  now  the  more  common  and  the  more  popular  with 
the  men.  These  houses  furnish  their  lodgers  with  one 
thing  which  they  cannot  have  in  the  others — privacy. 

*  On  the  evening  of  May  29,  1909,  the  writer  accompanied  by  an 
officer  of  the  Chicago  Department  of  Health  and  an  officer  of  the 
Chicago  Municipal  Lodging  House,  went  through  20  or  more  of  the 
cheap  lodging  houses  of  the  city,  and  although  the  night  was  warm 
almost  to  sultriness,  we  found  the  windows  closed  and  locked  in 
almost  every  house  that  we  visited.  In  three  we  found  windows,  at 
the  rear  only,  open  about  six  inches.  In  but  one  house  was  the  air 
at  all  pure:  there  a  large  pane  of  glass,  half  the  size  of  the  window 
itself,  had  been  broken  out  and  there  was  a  sufficient  supply  of  fresh 
air  in  the  room. 

t  Water-closets  in  a  number  of  the  houses  visited  in  May,  1909, 
were  out  of  order,  and  in  few  if  any  of  the  houses  visited  were  the  toilet 
rooms  sanitarily  clean. 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Each  man  sleeps  alone  in  a  tiny  room,  the  door  of 
which  he  may  lock  when  he  enters,  and  this  fact  alone 
accounts  for  their  greater  favor.  The  partitions  which 
separate  these  tiny  5  x  6  ft.  rooms  from  each  other  are 
usually  not  over  seven  feet  high,  and  in  order  to  prevent 
a  man's  next  neighbor  from  reaching  over  the  partition 
and  stealing  his  clothing  while  he  sleeps,  wire  netting 
is  stretched  and  fastened  firmly  over  the  tops  of  all  the 
rooms.* 

The  first  picture  in  the  group  accompanying  this 
Appendix  shows  how,  in  many  of  the  cubicle  lodg- 
ing houses,  the  corrugated  iron  walls  of  the  cubi- 
cles are  extended  to  the  outer  walls  of  the  build- 
ing, making  it  possible  for  the  few  men  who  occupy 
rooms  with  windows  to  control  the  ventilation  of  an 
entire  floor.  As  there  are  sometimes  200  or  more 
cubicles  or  cells  on  a  floor,  none  of  which,  except  perhaps 
four  at  either  end  of  the  long  building,  have  access  to 
outer  light  and  air,  this  is  a  very  serious  defect  in  ar- 
rangement. No  one  could  blame  the  man  occupying 
the  room  illustrated,  if  he  closed  his  window  when  the 
mercury  dropped  toward  zero,  but  his  doing  so  would 
condemn  more  than  200  fellow  lodgers  to  breathe  air 
that  is  both  limited  and  impure  the  whole  night  through. 
Nor  can  the  air  of  the  central  cells  furthest  from  the 
outer  walls  be  greatly  purified  at  any  time  during  the 
twenty-four  hours  even  though  the  windows  of  these 

*  In  spite  of  this  precaution  against  robbery  a  great  many  petty 
thefts  are  committed  in  the  lodging  houses.  Some  of  the  men  supply 
themselves  with  strong  pieces  of  wire,  bent  to  a  hook  at  the  end,  which 
they  reach  through  the  wire  netting  and  hook  into  the  clothing  of  a 
neighbor.  Drawing  it  up  to  the  top  of  the  room  they  succeed  in 
holding  the  garments  and  rifling  the  pockets.  Not  infrequently  some 
very  decent  man  was  obliged  to  appeal  to  the  Bureau  of  Charities 
for  aid  because  he  had  been  robbed  in  this  way.  (See  also  page  146.) 

3,8 


APPENDICES 

outside  rooms  be  opened.  In  every  building  with 
cubicles,  a  corridor  of  considerable  width  should  sep- 
arate the  last  row  of  cubicles  from  an  outer  wall  that 
contains  windows,  and  these  should  be  kept  open  night 
and  day  unless  artificial  means  of  ventilation  are  in- 
stalled in  the  buildings. 

The  air  in  the  majority  of  the  cubicle  rooms,  which 
are  surrounded  by  outer  corridors,  is  better  than 
that  in  houses  like  the  one  illustrated;  but  in  none  of 
the  lodging  houses  containing  cubicles  is  it  good.  For 
not  only  are  the  more  central  cells  too  far  from  the 
windows  to  receive  much  benefit  from  the  fresh  air 
which  enters  them,  but  in  the  cubicle  rooming-houses 
as  in  the  dormitory  houses  the  plumbing  is  frequently 
out  of  order  and  the  offensive  odors  permeate  the  air 
of  even  the  most  distant  cells.  Little  attempt  is  made 
to  keep  the  toilet  rooms  clean  and  it  would  in  fact  be  a 
most  difficult  matter  to  do  this,  since  unpainted,  soft 
wood  floors  are  the  rule  in  most  of  the  lodging  houses.* 

In  New  York  and  some  other  cities  the  law  requires 
that  mattresses  shall  be  covered  or  encased  with  a 
water-proof  covering  of  some  kind.  There  is  no  such 
provision  in  the  Illinois  or  Chicago  laws  or  ordinances 
and  the  condition  of  the  mattresses  in  some  of  the 
houses  is  better  imagined  than  described.  Comforters, 
thick  and  heavy,  and  wellnigh  impossible  to  cleanse, 
are  almost  universally  preferred  to  blankets  in  the 
Chicago  lodging  houses,  and  no  clerk  or  manager  with 
whom  I  have  talked  even  made  the  claim  that  the  com- 
forters were  ever  washed  or  cleaned  in  any  way.  In 
the  better  houses  it  is  generally  claimed  that  sheets  are 

*  Stale  and  disagreeable/ if  not  sickeningly  offensive  odors  were 
noticeable  in  the  sleeping  apartments  of  the  majority  of  the  lodging 
houses  visited  by  the  writer. 

319 


HOMELESS    MEN 

changed  and  washed  at  least  once  a  week.  In  a  few 
they  are  said  to  be  changed  oftener  if  the  tenant  of 
the  room  changes,  but  many  houses  frankly  acknowledge 
that  sheets  are  changed  but  once  in  two  weeks.  From 
the  appearance  of  the  bed  linen  in  still  other  houses  it 
is  evident  that  washing  occurs  even  less  frequently,  and 
in  one  or  two  of  the  worst  houses  the  sheets  are  ap- 
parently used  without  washing  until  they  wear  out.* 

Before  attempting  to  show  how  direct  a  relation  there 
is  between  the  unsanitary  conditions  in  the  lodging 
houses  and  the  health  of  the  men  who  inhabit  them, 
I  wish  to  touch  briefly  upon  the  risk  run  by  all  lodgers 
in  the  so-called  "cubicle"  lodging  houses  if  fire  should 
occur  in  one  of  them. 

In  order  to  use  for  bedroom  purposes  as  much  of  the 
floor  space  as  possible,  the  aisles  between  the  rooms  in 
houses  of  this  type  are  purposely  made  narrow.  When 
the  ground  space  covered  by  the  building  is  large, 
including  three  or  four  ordinary  city  lots,  as  is  the  case 
with  several  of  the  South  Side  lodging  houses  in  Chicago, 
these  narrow  aisles  are  numerous  and  have  many  turns 
in  them.  Some  of  the  aisles  afford  no  passage  through 
to  others  but  are  mere  blind  alleys.  With  windows 
only  at  the  front  and  rear  ends  of  the  buildings  and 
with  the  light  from  these  obstructed  by  the  walls  of 
the  cubicles  near  them,  all  the  central  parts  of  the  build- 
ings are  necessarily  dark  and  this  darkness  would  in- 

*  Lodging-house  clerks  are  not  infrequently  themselves  "homeless 
men."  Two  men  whom  we  knew  well  at  the  Bureau  office  later  be- 
came clerks  in  popular  houses,  and  from  these  men  and  from  two  or 
three  others  with  whom  the  district  office  frequently  came  in  touch, 
we  learned  many  interesting  facts  regarding  the  income,  the  cost  of 
maintenance,  and  the  general  management  of  the  cheap  lodging 
houses,  as  well  as  their  customs  in  regard  to  the  changing  of  bed 
linen,  the  care  of  the  rooms,  etc. 

320 


APPENDICES 

crease  the  danger  to  the  lodgers  if  fire  should  break 
out. 

In  one  of  the  largest  South  Side  lodging  houses — one 
in  which  nearly  a  thousand  men  are  accommodated  each 
night — a  man  connected  with  the  house  acted  as  guide 
when  a  few  years  ago  another  Bureau  worker  and  myself 
asked  to  go  through  the  building.  This  man  carried  a 
lighted  taper  with  him  to  illumine  the  almost  total 
darkness  of  many  of  the  aisles  between  the  rooms, 
and  twice  on  a  single  floor  he  unintentionally  went  down 
blind  alleys  thinking  that  they  were  open  ones.  Several 
other  times  he  seemed  uncertain  as  to  whether  aisles 
with  several  turns  in  them  were  open  or  blind. 

If  some  one  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  house,  with 
a  light  in  his  hands,  experienced  such  difficulty  in 
finding  his  way  about  when  wide  awake  and  not  at  all 
apprehensive  or  nervous,  what  would  be  the  experience 
of  scores  and  hundreds  of  men  unfamiliar  with  the 
devious  turnings  of  the  narrow  aisles  if  they  were 
suddenly  roused  from  sleep  by  the  cry  of  "  Fire"?  The 
third  picture  in  the  group  was  taken  recently  in  one 
of  the  largest  and  most  popular  cheap  lodging  houses  in 
Chicago  and  shows  one  of  the  cross  aisles  of  the  building 
with  large  posts  obstructing  the  passage.  There  are 
three  of  these  posts  in  the  aisle  shown  and  as  many  or 
more  in  several  others.  There  is  but  20  inches  of  space 
for  the  men  to  pass  through  between  the  posts  and  the 
walls  of  the  rooms.  Several  of  the  main  aisles  leading 
to  fire  escapes  in  the  same  house  are  blocked  by  small 
sheet  iron  stoves.  These  stoves  in  winter  are  some- 
times red  hot.  The  aisle  itself  is  30  inches  wide  but 
the  space  between  the  corner  rooms  and  the  stoves  is 
but  22  inches.  Smoke-blinded  and  panic-stricken  men 


21 


321 


HOMELESS   MEN 

would  have  but  little  chance  of  escape  in  aisles  thus 
blocked. 

While  the  two  types  of  lodging  houses  already  de- 
scribed, the  dormitory  and  the  cubicle,  are  the  com- 
monest to  be  found  in  Chicago,  there  are  a  few  of 
another  and  even  more  undesirable  kind.  I  refer  to  the 
small  hotels  or  private  houses  in  which  numbers  of  men 
are  housed  with  even  greater  over-crowding  and  in  more 
filthy  and  unhealthful  conditions  than  those  described 
in  the  previous  pages.  One  of  the  lodging  houses 
occupies  a  building  which  was  once  used  as  a  small 
hotel.  The  erection  of  office  buildings  on  each  side 
of  it  permanently  closed  its  windows  except  those  at 
front  and  rear,  and  so  darkened  it  that  it  could  no 
longer  be  used  for  its  original  purpose;  but  every  night 
homeless  men  sleep  in  its  unventilated  and  uncleaned 
rooms  breathing  air  so  foul  that  one  entering  from  out- 
doors finds  it  suffocating  and  intolerable.  I  do  not 
know  of  any  house  in  Chicago  where  conditions  are 
worse  than  in  this  one, — in  which  the  majority  of  the 
rooms  are  absolutely  without  access  to  the  outer  air, 
—but  in  other  sections  of  the  city  and  in  other  cities 
throughout  the  country,  particularly  in  their  foreign 
quarters,  are  a  number  of  houses  where  conditions 
similar  to  this  exist,  and  where  disease  is  bred  as  in 
culture  tubes. 

That  the  lodging  houses  of  Chicago  are  in  fact  centers 
of  infection  that  endanger  the  lives  not  only  of  their 
tenants  but  of  thousands  of  other  persons  in  the  city,  is 
a  demonstrable  fact. 

In  1905  the  superintendent  of  the  county  institutions 
at  Dunning  made  a  study  of  the  sources  from  which 

322 


APPENDICES 

the  cases  of  tuberculosis  received  at  the  tuberculosis 
hospital  came.  \\c  found  that  while  scattered  cases 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  city — one  to  a  block,  or  one 
to  six  or  eight  blocks  as  the  case  might  be  —  from  a  single 
block  in  South  Clark  Street  in  which  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  cheap  lodging  houses,  174  cases  of  tuberculosis 
had  been  received  in  five  years;  36  in  the  last  year 
(1904).  A  total  of  238  men  had  been  admitted  to  the 
hospitals  in  five  years  from  certain  lodging  houses  on 
the  same  street,  covering  a  distance  of  less  than  two 
blocks.  From  one  block  on  another  lodging  house 
street  90  cases  had  been  received  during  a  similar 
period,  42  of  which  had  come  from  a  single  house — 17 
in  a  single  year.*  The  house  referred  to  accommodated 
only  about  200  men  a  night. 


*  Workers  at  the  Central  District  office  of  the  Bureau  of  Charities 
were  very  familiar  with  this  particular  lodging  house,  which  was  on 
the  dormitory  plan  and  was  managed  by  a  well  known  religious  or- 
ganization. A  man  who  for  two  years  was  clerk  of  the  house  had 
been  one  of  our  applicants,  and  a  large  number  of  the  homeless  men 
who  came  to  us  for  aid  gave  this  lodging  house  as  their  place  of  resi- 
dence. 1  have  visited  the  place  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  and 
counted  at  that  hour  five  consumptives  lying  on  the  beds,  hacking 
and  coughing  and  spitting  on  the  floor.  The  clerk  explained  that  he 
did  not  ordinarily  allow  men  to  remain  in  the  beds  during  the  day 
but  that  these  men  were  not  feeling  very  well  and  he  was  sorry  for 
them  and  so  had  permitted  them  to  register  early  for  the  night  in 
order  that  they  might  lie  down  and  rest.  There  were  three  or  four 
large  cuspidors  in  this  room  but  the  clerk  said  it  was  hard  to  get  the 
men  to  use  them.  He  ordered  them  to  do  so  while  we  were  there, 
but  undried  sputum  was  visible  in  many  places  upon  the  dirty  floor 
of  the  room. 

[In  order  to  ascertain  whether  such  a  condition  of  affairs  would 
be  tolerated  today  (191 1),  while  this  book  was  being  prepared  for  the 
press  a  letter  of  inquiry  was  sent  to  the  Health  Department  of  Chi- 
cago. The  reply  said  that:  Although  the  extent  of  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  health  department  of  the  City  of  Chicago  over  lodging  houses 
is  somewhat  doubtful,  inspections  of  their  sanitary  conditions  are  now 
frequently  made  and  cleaning  and  repairs  are  ordered  when  found 
necessary.  The  department,  however,  does  not  claim  that  such 
supervision  is  adequate. — Editor.] 

323 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Four  blocks  on  West  Madison  Street,  in  which  the 
lodging  houses  are  fewer  and  somewhat  smaller  than 
in  the  three  blocks  referred  to  on  South  Clark  Street, 
furnished  204  cases  for  the  Dunning  hospital  in  five 
years,  and  two  short  blocks  on  Desplaines  Street, 
58  more.  One  hundred  and  twenty-three  cases  from 
the  nine  lodging  house  blocks  referred  to,*  in  a  single 
year  went  to  Dunning  to  die.  Only  951  cases  were 
admitted  that  year  to  the  tuberculosis  hospital  from 
among  all  the  2,000,000  and  more  population  of  the 
remainder  of  Chicago  and  Cook  County.  This  fact 
gives  an  idea  of  how  exceedingly  large  must  be  the 
proportion  of  tuberculosis  cases  in  the  lodging  house 
district  alone,  for  I  have  mentioned  the  figures  of  cases 
sent  to  Dunning  for  but  nine  of  the  30  odd  blocks  in 
Chicago  in  which  cheap  lodging  houses  for  men  exist 
and  in  which  conditions  similar  to  those  described  are 
breeding  the  disease. 

The  tuberculosis  hospital  at  Dunning  has  until 
recently  been  mainly  one  at  which  none  but  patients  in 
the  last  stages  of  the  disease  were  received.  The  men 
who  were  sent  there  from  the  lodging  houses  all  went 
there  to  die — some  to  die  within  twenty-four  hours. 
To  say  that  123  men  went  there  from  the  lodging  houses 
within  a  district  of  nine  blocks  during  a  single  year 
means  that  a  very  much  larger  number  of  men  in  these 
same  houses  were  ill  with  tuberculosis,  and  that  the  lack 
of  cuspidors,  the  use  of  soiled  bedding,  and  the  dry- 
sweeping  of  the  floors  are  making  the  "  risk  "  of  infection 

*  It  is  difficult  to  give  an  estimate  of  the  total  population  of  these 
particular  blocks  but  as  they  are  in  the  section  of  the  city  mainly 
devoted  to  business  purposes  their  population  cannot  be  up  to  the 
average  of  city  blocks. 


324 


APPENDICES 

scarcely  a  risk  at  all  but  a  certainty  for  hundreds  of 
men.* 

The  great  majority  of  the  non-resident  tuberculous 
applicants  for  aid  at  the  office  were  men  or  boys  on 
their  way  to  or  from  the  supposedly  health-giving 
"West,"  who  were  either  too  ill  upon  their  arrival  at 
Chicago  to  go  further,  or  (quite  as  often  the  case) 
lacked  the  means  to  do  so.  Not  infrequently  one  of 
these  unfortunates  died  within  a  few  days  after  his 
application  to  the  office,  and  we  had  the  sad  duty  of 
notifying  his  relatives  and  attending  to  the  details  of 
the  shipment  of  his  body. 

No  matter  what  their  condition  might  be,  nor  how 
much  their  presence  in  the  lodging  houses  might 
endanger  the  lives  of  other  lodgers,  tuberculous  men 
who  were  strangers  in  the  city  and  indigent  could  find 
refuge  nowhere  else  but  in  these  houses.  No  hospital 
in  Chicago  will  open  its  doors  to  them.  Even  the 
county  institutions  are  not  supposed  to  care  for  any 
but  the  resident  poor  of  the  county, — although  in 
common  humanity  they  again  and  again  accepted  for 
temporary  care  non-resident  consumptives  of  whose 
presence  in  the  lodging  houses  we  notified  them. 

In  a  great  many  cases  where  the  men  were  strong 
enough  to  travel  we  made  investigations  as  quickly  as 
possible  by  letter  or  telegraph  to  discover  whether  they 
had  relatives  willing  and  able  to  care  for  them,  and 
then  sent  the  men  back  to  their  homes — permitting 
them  to  remain  in  a  lodging  house  in  the  interval  simply 
because  there  was  no  other  place  in  which  to  house 
them. 

*  For  a  record  of  the  93  men  among  the  thousand  known  to  be 
suffering  from  tuberculosis,  see  Chapter  IN,  Physical  Condition  of 
the  Men,  p.  38. 

32$ 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Lodging  house  keepers  all  claim  that  they  will 
neither  harbor  nor  receive  for  a  night  a  man  who  is 
ill;  and  we  knew  of  cases  where  a  consumptive's  condi- 
tion was  so  apparent  on  sight,  that  he  did  in  fact  have 
great  difficulty  in  securing  a  bed  in  the  district;  but 
if  the  man  who  asks  for  a  room  is  able  to  stand  and  if 
he  assures  the  clerk — as  he  generally  does — that  he 
expects  to  go  on  "out  West"  or  to  his  friends  the  next 
morning,  the  chances  are  that  he  will  be  assigned  a  room 
without  question.* 

As  the  cubicle  lodging  houses  of  our  cities  are  at 
present  constructed  it  is  admittedly  almost,  if  not  quite, 
impossible  to  make  them  sanitarily  clean  and  safe. 
The  corrugated  iron  partition  walls  which  reach  to  the 
unpainted  floors  would  prevent  the  latter  from  being 
well  scrubbed  even  if  scrubbing  were  to  be  substituted 
for  the  dry  sweeping  which  is  now  generally  the  cus- 
tom. Either  these  partitions  should  be  placed  so  as 
to  clear  the  floor  by  several  inches  to  allow  room  for 
cleaning  under  them,  or  else  all  walls  and  partitions 
should  join  cement  floors  with  a  curve  instead  of  an 

*  At  the  present  time  (1909)  whenever  a  man  suffering  from  tu- 
berculosis is  removed  from  a  lodging  house  to  Dunning,  the  city  health 
department  is  notified  and  fumigates  the  house.  This  was  not  done  a 
few  years  ago,  but  the  futility  of  this  single  precaution  taken  by  the 
health  department  today  is  evident  when  one  considers  that  if  a 
consumptive  is  not  taken  to  Dunning  but  is  merely  turned  out  on  the 
streets,  or  if,  in  spite  of  his  illness,  he  is  allowed  to  stay  in  a  lodging 
house  several  days  or  weeks,  this  fact  is  never  called  to  the  attention 
of  the  department  and  nothing  is  done  about  the  matter. 

When  a  case  of  tuberculosis  is  reported  it  takes  from  two  to  three 
days  of  the  time  of  several  men  from  the  health  department  to  dis- 
infect one  of  the  larger  houses;  but  an  officer  of  the  department  of 
health  stated  in  talking  with  me  in  the  spring  of  1909  that  they 
unfortunately  had  no  means  of  knowing  that  their  work  would  not 
be  nullified  by  the  admission  on  the  following  day  of  one  or  more 
other  consumptives  to  the  same  house. 

326 


APPENDICES 

angle  at  the  place  of  joining — the  form  of  construction 
now  being  used  in  all  modern  hospitals  for  contagious 
diseases. 

In  Appendix  I"),  page  335,  will  be  found  a  copy  of  an 
ordinance  "licensing  and  regulating  the  construction, 
maintenance,  and  operation  of  lodging  houses  in  the 
city  of  Minneapolis"  which  was  passed  in  May,  1910, 
by  the  council  of  that  city.  Minneapolis  is  a  young 
city  with  less  than  300,000  inhabitants,  but  it  hopes 
to  cure  certain  sanitary  evils  within  its  lodging  houses 
identical  with  those  described  in  the  preceding  pages 
as  belonging  to  Chicago,  before  they  are  beyond 
control.  The  law  referred  to  has  so  many  excellent 
provisions  that  its  text  is  given  in  full.  The  require- 
ments that  the  floors  shall  be  painted  or  shellaced; 
that  cuspidors  containing  disinfecting  liquid  shall  be 
provided  in  "each  hall,  room,  cubicle,  water  closet, 
washroom  and  bathroom";  the  order  that  every  case 
of  an  infectious  disease  must  at  once  be  reported  to  the 
health  department  and  also  the  clause  in  the  law  which 
provides  for  the  very  frequent  inspection  of  the  lodging 
houses  by  officers  of  that  department,  may  render  less 
necessary  in  that  city  the  change  in  the  construction  of 
the  lodging  houses  which  has  just  been  recommended. 

In  a  large  number  of  our  states  the  laws  regulating 
lodging  houses  are  neither  explicit  nor  broad  enough  to 
insure  the  best  construction  or  operation  of  lodging 
houses,  and,  unfortunately,  such  laws  as  exist  are  upon 
the  whole  poorly  enforced  because  the  responsibility  for 
conditions  is  often  divided  between  the  state  and  the 
city  health  authorities.  Each  claims  not  to  have  full 
jurisdiction,  and  between  the  two  many  evils  which 
even  under  present  laws  might  readily  be  eliminated  are 

327 


HOMELESS    MEN 

allowed  to  flourish.  Where  the  provisions  of  a  city's 
ordinance  touching  upon  the  construction  and  operation 
of  lodging  houses  are  more  drastic  than  those  of  the 
state  law,  it  is  generally  held  that  the  city  health  de- 
partment is  not  within  its  legal  right  if  it  carries  its 
activities  beyond  those  covered  by  the  state  law.  The 
city  health  department  therefore  is  handicapped  by  the 
fact  that  it  can  enforce  only  such  provisions  of  the  lodg- 
ing house  ordinances  as  are  covered  by  the  laws  of  the 
state,  and  in  Illinois  and  in  certain  other  states  the  state 
board  of  health  is  equally  handicapped  by  the  limita- 
tions of  state  laws  regarding  the  lodging  houses.* 

In  Chicago,  the  state  board  of  health  is  said  to  be  on 
one  fence  and  the  city  health  department  on  another, 
with  "many  evils  lying  between  which  neither  of  the 
officials  are  willing  to  jump  down  and  interfere  with/' 
Such  an  unfortunate  situation  can  only  be  remedied 
by  having  identical  state  and  city  laws,  which  shall 
clearly  place  the  responsibility  for  their  enforcement. 
This  is  now  the  case  in  Minnesota  where  the  new  city 
ordinance  to  regulate  lodging  houses  in  Minneapolis, 
passed  May  13,  1910,  is  almost  an  exact  duplicate  in 
its  essential  provisions  of  the  regulations  governing 
lodging  houses  adopted  by  the  Minnesota  State  Board 
of  Health  on  January  1 1,  1910. f 

All  that  has  been  said  in  the  previous  pages  about  the 
danger  of  contagion  from  tuberculosis  in  the  lodging 
houses  might  be  said  with  equal  truth  of  venereal  and 

*  The  health  board  in  Boston  and  the  Massachusetts  state 
authorities  work  together  in  this  matter.  See  Proceedings  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  1903,  page  415. 

fSee  Appendix  D,  page  335  and  Appendix  E,  page  342. 

328 


APPENDICES 

other  infectious  diseases;  and  if  an  epidemic  of  small- 
pox should  occur  in  a  city,  the  lodging  houses  would 
almost  certainly  prove  dangerous  centers  of  infection. 

Considering  how  serious  a  menace  to  the  general 
health  of  cities  the  lodging  houses  so  frequently  are, 
and  to  how  great  an  extent  the  health  and  even  the  lives 
of  men  who  contract  contagious  diseases  within  them 
are  being  sacrificed,  it  is  not  possible  to  lay  too  great 
emphasis  upon  the  need  for  cordial  co-operation  between 
state  and  city  health  authorities  in  all  states,  and  for 
better  laws  than  those  now  in  force  in  most  states  to 
regulate  the  construction  and  operation  of  city  lodging 
houses. 


329 


APPENDIX  C 
HOMELESS  MEN  IN  MINNEAPOLIS 

The  "twin  cities"  of  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis  which 
form  the  gateway  to  the  great  Northwest  are  somewhat 
off  the  line  of  the  true  tramps'  itinerary  westward  from 
Chicago,  which  leads  either  by  way  of  St.  Louis  and 
Kansas  City  to  Los  Angeles  and  southern  California,  or 
through  Omaha  and  Denver  to  San  Francisco  and  the 
northern  coast  states. 

The  cities  mentioned,  however,  are  directly  in  the 
route  of  hundreds  and  thousands  of  homeless  seasonal 
laborers  on  their  way  to  and  from  the  Dakotas  and  the 
other  northwestern  wheat  states,  and  they  are  also  used 
as  winter  headquarters  by  thousands  of  lumber  camp 
laborers  who  prefer  residence  in  one  of  these  cities  rather 
than  in  Chicago  because  the  distance  to  the  woods  is 
shorter  and  their  chances  of  securing  lumber  camp  em- 
ployment are  greater. 

For  these  reasons  one  finds  in  both  Minneapolis  and 
St.  Paul  homeless  men  colonies  somewhat  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  size  of  these  cities.  The  figures  for  St. 
Paul  are  not  available,  but  in  Minneapolis  in  1910  a 
study  of  the  cheap  lodging  houses  was  made  by  an 
agent  of  the  Minneapolis  Associated  Charities.  It  was 
found  that  the  105  lodging  houses  that  the  city  then 
contained  offered  lodgings  at  thirty  cents  per  night  or 
less  for  5800  men.  The  average  number  of  lodgers  each 
night  was  3300.  It  was  estimated  that  at  certain  times 
during  the  winter  there  were  undoubtedly  not  fewer  than 
6000  homeless  men  per  night  requiring  accommodation. 

330 


APPENDICES 

The  number  and  the  capacity  of  the  lodging  houses 
is  increasing  and  it  is  estimated  that  at  the  present 
time  fully  45,000  different  homeless  men  are  annually 
domiciled  in  Minneapolis  for  one  or  more  nights. 
That  this  number  will  continue  to  increase  with  the 
growth  of  the  city  and  of  opportunities  for  seasonal 
employment  afforded  by  the  country  surrounding  it, 
can  scarcely  be  questioned.  Already  it  has  been  found 
expedient  to  pass  state  laws  and  city  ordinances  regu- 
lating the  construction  and  management  of  the  cheap 
lodging  houses  in  order  to  prevent  disease  among  the 
men  who  inhabit  them.  The  need  for  a  municipal 
lodging  house  is  receiving  attention  in  Minneapolis* 
because  at  certain  seasons  so  many  men  come  into  the 
city  that  they  more  than  fill  all  the  private  lodging 
houses  and  must  appeal  to  the  police  for  overnight 
care  in  the  stations. 

The  Associated  Charities  of  Minneapolis  has  among 
its  applicants  a  considerable  proportion  of  homeless 
men,  and  is  one  of  several  charity  organization  societies 
that  employ  specially  trained  agents  to  deal  with  these 
men.  The  methods  of  investigating  the  histories  of 
homeless  men  and  of  aiding  them  were  similar  in  the 
Minneapolis  and  Chicago  societies,  and  a  study  has 
therefore  been  made  of  200  cases  of  men  who  asked  aid 
of  the  former  society,  to  ascertain  whether  those  apply- 
ing in  the  two  cities  are  much  alike  or,  if  not,  in  what 
respects  they  differ. f 

*  A  municipal  lodging  house  was  opened  in  Minneapolis  in  January, 
IQII. — Editor. 

t  The  200  Minneapolis  records — like  the  Chicago  records — were 
t.iken  just  as  they  stood  in  the  files,  except  that  uninvestigated  cases 
were  excluded.  The  proportion  of  cases  in  which  the  information 
secured  about  the  men  was  meager,  is  also  about  the  same  in  the  two 
groups. 

33' 


HOMELESS    MEN 

Study  of  the  records  tends  to  show  that  in  habits  and 
general  characteristics  the  homeless  men  of  the  larger 
and  the  smaller  city  are  much  alike,  although  in  some 
other  respects  there  are  differences  between  them.* 
Comparison  of  the  tables  showing  the  ages  of  the  men 
proves  that  a  larger  proportion  of  the  Minneapolis  men 
are  young — under  thirty  years  of  age — and  a  smaller 
proportion  are  over  sixty,  than  was  the  case  in  Chicago. 

In  matters  of  health  the  percentages  are  almost 
exactly  alike  for  the  men  of  the  two  cities;  62  per  cent 
of  the  one  thousand  Chicago  men  were  in  defective 
mental  or  physical  condition,  and  60  per  cent  of  the 
Minneapolis  group  were  in  defective  condition.  The 
percentages  of  tuberculosis  and  of  insanity  are  higher 
among  the  Minneapolis  applicants.  The  percentage  of 
crippling  is  nearly  the  same — 16.7  per  cent  in  Chicago, 
17.5  per  cent  in  Minneapolis.  The  proportion  of  indus- 
trial accidents  is  apparently  larger  in  the  northern  city. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  difference  between  the 
men  of  the  northwestern  city  and  those  of  Chicago  is 
discovered  by  comparing  the  nationality  tables  of  the 
two  groups.  Among  the  Chicago  applicants  62.5  per 
cent  were  American  born  and  of  these  only  1 1  per  cent 
were  of  foreign  parentage.  In  Minneapolis  but  44.5 
per  cent  were  American  and  of  these  over  66  per  cent 
were  "first  generation"  Americans  whose  parents  had 
been  born  abroad.  Germans  came  next  to  Americans 
in  point  of  number  in  the  Chicago  group  but,  as  perhaps 
might  be  expected  from  the  nature  of  the  general  popu- 
lation in  Minnesota,  the  Scandinavians  far  outnumbered 
the  men  of  other  nationalities  in  the  Minneapolis  group. 

*  For  ages,  nativity,  occupations,  and  other  data  concerning  the 
Minneapolis  homeless  men,  see  Tables  28  to  33,  at  the  close  of  Ap- 
pendix A,  pp.  306-313. 

332 


APPENDICES 

This  larger  proportion  of  foreigners  or  "first  genera- 
tion" Americans  in  the  northern  city  very  likely  ac- 
counts for  some  other  differences  between  the  men  of 
the  two  cities, — one  of  which  is  that  the  percentage  of 
professional  and  business  men  and  of  skilled  workers  in 
the  Minneapolis  group  is  decidedly  smaller  than  in  the 
Chicago  group.  Five  of  the  men  were  listed  as  illiterate, 
184  had  had  a  common  school  education,  nine  were 
college  men,  and  the  amount  of  education  of  two  was 
not  known. 

It  is  possible  that  this  same  fact  of  a  smaller  per- 
centage of  Americans  also  has  some  relation  to  the 
further  fact  that  a  smaller  proportion  of  the  Minneapolis 
men  are  degraded  and  degenerate;  fewer  are  separated 
from  their  wives;  fewer  have  criminal  records;  and 
a  much  smaller  percentage  are  professional  beggars 
or  tramps.  Ninety-three*  drank  to  excess,  39  were 
confirmed  wanderers,  13  were  chronic  beggars,  6 
had  criminal  tendencies,  and  3  were  confirmed  drug 
users. t  The  stories  told  by  the  men  were  found  to  be 
true  in  1 54  instances,  false  in  26  instances,  and  in  20 
cases  the  stories  could  not  be  verified.  Although 
unskilled  laborers  form  a  large  proportion  of  the  home- 

*  This  is  a  much  higher  percentage  of  drunkenness  than  was 
discovered  among  the  Chicago  applicants,  but  in  each  of  the  above 
cases  the  man  was  either  seen  intoxicated  by  the  Associated  Charities 
agent  or  admitted  when  questioned  that  he  frequently  drank  to  excess. 
Whether  the  extreme  cold  of  Minneapolis  influenced  a  higher  per- 
centage of  the  homeless  men  of  that  city  to  drink  to  excess,  or  whether 
the  lower  percentage  of  drunkenness  in  the  Chicago  group  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  Chicago  workers  failed  to  learn  the  truth  regarding 
the  drink  habits  of  many  of  the  applicants,  are  questions  which 
unfortunately  cannot  be  answered. 

t  The  institutional  records  of  the  Minneapolis  homeless  men  were 
as  follows:  Confined  in  workhouse,  20;  jail,  17;  penitentiary,  4;  re- 
form schools,  3.  Inmates  of  poorhouse,  10;  drink  cure,  3;  insane 
asylum,  3;  orphanage,  2;  soldiers  home,  school  for  deaf,  school 
for  feeble-minded,  and  home  for  the  aged,  each  i. 

333 


HOMELESS    MEN 

less  men  of  Minneapolis,  not  many  of  these  are  mere 
casual  laborers  living  upon  odd  jobs  and  frequently 
dependent  upon  charity.  The  work  of  many  of  the 
laborers  is  seasonal  as  in  Chicago,  but,  perhaps  because 
winter  employment  in  the  lumber  camps  is  near  at  hand 
and  easy  to  procure,  fewer  of  them  spend  several  months 
at  a  time  in  idleness  in  the  lodging  houses. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  homeless  men  applicants  for 
charity  in  Minneapolis  seem  to  average  better  in  health, 
better  in  habits  of  industry,  and  better  in  morals  than 
the  Chicago  applicants,  but  although  this  may  be  true 
there  are  many  evidences  that  the  processes  which 
tend  to  make  homeless  men  in  any  city  less  healthy, 
less  industrially  useful,  and  less  moral  are  operative  in 
Minneapolis  as  in  Chicago.  The  health  and  sanitary 
conditions  in  the  lodging  houses  at  the  time  this  study 
was  made,  were  bad,  although  they  have  recently  been 
improved.*  Seasonal  labor,  with  its  long  periods  of 
unemployment,  with  the  concomitant  evils  of  drink 
and  vice,  is  destroying  habits  of  industry  and  demoraliz- 
ing the  unskilled  laborers  of  Minneapolis  just  as  it  is  do- 
ing in  Chicago  and  other  cities;  and  lastly,  the  ease  with 
which  they  can  beat  their  way  about  the  country  is 
making  tramps  of  scores  of  these  men  of  the  Northwest, 
exactly  as  it  is  doing  in  the  East,  the  West  and  the  South. 

"The  enforcement  of  the  new  city  ordinance  has  resulted  in 
closing  five  or  six  of  the  most  unsanitary  houses  in  Minneapolis. — 
Editor. 


334 


APPENDIX  D 

ORDINANCE  REGULATING  LODGING  HOUSES 
IN  MINNEAPOLIS 

An  ordinance  licensing  and  regulating  the  construction, 

maintenance  and  operation  of  lodging  houses  in  the 

City  of  Minneapolis. 
The  City  Council  of  the  City  of  Minneapolis  do  ordain 

as  follows: 

SECTION  i.  Definition.  The  term  "lodging  house" 
as  used  in  this  ordinance  shall  be  taken  to  mean  and 
include  any  house  or  building  or  portion  thereof,  in 
which  the  compartments  are  arranged  on  the  cubical 
plan  or  the  dormitory  plan,  and  in  which  persons  are 
harbored  or  received,  or  lodged  for  hire,  or  any  part  of 
which  is  let  to  any  person  in  which  to  sleep. 

License.  No  building  or  part  of  any  building  in  the 
City  of  Minneapolis  shall  be  used  after  June  ist,  1910, 
as  a  lodging  house  unless  the  proprietor  thereof  has 
obtained  a  license  as  herein  provided. 

SEC.  2.  Any  person,  company  or  corporation  desir- 
ing a  license  to  use,  conduct  or  operate  as  a  lodging 
house  any  building  or  any  part  of  any  building  in  the 
city  of  Minneapolis  shall  file  with  the  Commissioner  of 
Health  of  said  city  a  written  application  to  the  City 
Council  for  such  license,  giving  in  such  application  the 
full  name  and  address  of  the  proprietor  of  the  proposed 
lodging  house,  the  name  of  the  owner  of  the  premises 
and  the  location  and  portion  of  the  building  or  buildings 

335 


HOMELESS    MEN 

intended  to  be  used  as  a  lodging  house.  Upon  the 
filing  of  any  such  application  for  a  lodging  house  license, 
the  premises  therein  described  shall  be  inspected  by  the 
Commissioner  of  Health  or  his  deputies,  who  shall  keep 
a  permanent  record  of  such  inspection,  giving  the 
character,  construction  and  size  of  the  building; 
whether  or  not  the  building  has  proper  sewer  and  water 
connections;  the  number,  location  and  dimensions  of 
each  proposed  sleeping  room;  the  number  and  size  of 
outside  windows  in  each  proposed  sleeping  room;  other 
ventilation,  if  any,  in  each  proposed  sleeping  room; 
the  number  of  water  closets  on  each  floor ;  the  number  of 
set  wash  basins  on  each  floor;  the  number  and  descrip- 
tion of  all  bathing  apparatus  on  each  floor;  the  number 
and  kind  of  receptacles  for  refuse;  and  the  number  of 
beds  or  lodgers  allowed  in  each  sleeping  room.  The 
Commissioner  of  Health  shall  present  to  the  City 
Council  all  applications  for  such  license.  Such  license 
shall  be  issued  to  the  applicant  by  the  Commissioner  of 
Health  only  when  authorized  and  directed  by  the  City 
Council  so  to  do,  upon  the  presentation  by  the  applicant 
of  a  receipt  from  the  City  Treasurer  showing  payment 
into  the  city  treasury  of  the  license  fee  required  for 
such  license;  but  no  such  license  shall  be  issued  until  all 
the  regulations  relating  to  lodging  houses  have  been 
complied  with  by  the  applicant  for  such  license.  The 
annual  license  fee  for  such  license  is  hereby  fixed  and 
established  at  five  dollars  ($5.00)  for  each  lodging  house 
containing  not  to  exceed  fifteen  (15)  beds  and  ten  (10) 
cents  additional  for  each  bed  in  excess  of  fifteen. 
Provided,  that  ten  dollars  ($10.00)  shall  be  the  maxi- 
mum license  fee.  All  licenses  issued  under  this  ordi- 
nance shall  expire  on  the  first  Monday  of  May  next 
following  the  issuance  of  the  same. 

336 


APPENDICES 

SEC.  3.  Every  lodging  house  in  the  city  of  Minne- 
apolis shall  be  inspected  by  the  Commissioner  of  Health 
or  his  deputies  regularly  and  at  least  once  every  month. 

Each  licensee  shall  cause  his  license  to  be  continuously 
and  conspicuously  displayed  in  the  office  or  halls  of  his 
lodging  house. 

No  more  lodgers  shall  be  accommodated  in  any 
sleeping  room  in  any  lodging  house  than  the  number 
permitted  by  the  license. 

Each  general  sleeping  room  shall  be  adequately 
ventilated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  beyond  the  control 
of  lodgers  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Department  of 
Health.  Four  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  space  shall  be 
provided  for  each  bed  or  lodger.  The  beds  in  all  lodg- 
ing houses  and  in  every  room  in  which  beds  are  let  for 
lodgers  shall  be  separated  by  a  passageway  of  not  less 
than  two  (2)  feet  horizontally,  and  all  the  beds  shall  be 
so  arranged  that  under  each  of  them  the  air  shall  freely 
circulate.  Lodging  houses  shall  be  conducted  in 
accordance  with  rules  and  regulations  adopted  from 
time  to  time  by  the  Department  of  Health.  No  beds 
or  bunks  shall  be  placed  one  above  another,  and  no  one 
shall  be  permitted  to  sleep,  lodge  or  dwell  in  a  cellar 
or  basement. 

In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  be  provided  for 
each  lodger  a  separate  bed,  with  bedstead,  bedding  and 
bed  clothes,  and  no  lodger  shall  be  allowed  to  sleep 
elsewhere  than  in  such  bed.  All  mattresses  shall  be 
provided  with  waterproof  coverings  and  shall  be  so 
arranged  as  to  be  at  all  times  easily  inspected.  All 
beds,  bed  clothing,  mattresses  and  pillows  shall  always 
be  kept  clean  and  free  from  vermin.  No  comforters 
shall  be  permitted  but  blankets  used  instead.  Clean 
sheets  and  clean  pillow  cases  shall  be  furnished  for  each 

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HOMELESS    MEN 

bed  and  shall  be  changed  as  often  as  necessary  to  keep 
the  same  clean  or  as  may  be  required  by  the  Department 
of  Health.  Nothing  but  iron  or  metal  bedsteads  shall 
be  used. 

All  cubicles  shall  be  so  constructed  that  the  partitions 
thereof  shall  not  extend  to  within  two  feet  of  the  ceiling, 
and  there  shall  be  provided  in  said  partitions  a  space 
of  at  least  two  square  feet  in  area  for  the  purpose  of 
ventilation,  such  space  to  be  within  eighteen  (18)  inches 
of  the  floor. 

SEC.  4.  All  plumbing  fixtures  mentioned  in  this  or- 
dinance except  wash  bowls  shall  be  placed  in  a  room 
or  compartment  entirely  shut  off  from  sleeping  rooms 
by  an  airtight  partition  extending  from  floor  to  ceiling. 
The  entrance  to  this  room  or  compartment  must  not 
connect  directly  with  a  sleeping  room;  such  room  or 
compartment  must  be  provided  with  a  window  which 
will  open  to  the  outer  air  and  have  at  least  300  square 
inches  of  glass  area.  Provided,  however,  that  in  build- 
ings not  to  exceed  three  stories  in  height  now  in  use 
in  lodging  houses  where  plumbing  is  now  installed  in 
inside  rooms  or  compartments,  said  compartments  can 
be  ventilated  by  well  lighted  and  ventilated  light  shafts 
with  at  least  an  area  of  9  square  feet,  said  area  or  light- 
well  to  continue  up  and  through  roof  with  sky-light 
and  ventilators  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Health.  All  interior  partitions  in  toilet 
rooms  or  compartments  shall  be  dwarfed  and  must 
not  extend  closer  than  6  inches  to  the  floor  nor  more 
than  7  feet  high.  Provision  shall  be  made  to  light 
said  compartments  with  gas  or  electric  ight  and 
the  same  shall  be  lighted  continuously  during  the 
night.  The  floors  and  side  walls  up  to  a  height  of 
three  feet  shall  be  made  of  marble,  tile,  slate,  plastic, 

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APPENDICES 

mastic  asphalt  or  other  waterproof  and  non-corrosive 
materials  that  will  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Health.  Each  room  or  compartment  shall 
have  a  floor  drain  properly  constructed  in  same.  Pro- 
vided, however,  that  wash  room  and  toilet  rooms  as 
above  provided  may  be  combined  into  one  room  of 
sufficient  size  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Health.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall 
be  provided  in  above  mentioned  toilet  rooms  one  or 
more  water  closets  on  each  floor.  All  water  closets  shall 
be  connected  with  brass  floor  flange  approved  by  the 
Department  of  Health.  There  shall  be  provided  in 
each  toilet  room  above  mentioned  one  or  more  urinals 
on  each  floor.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  be 
at  least  one  wash  room  on  every  floor.  Every  such 
wash  room  shall  be  provided  with  hot  and  cold  water, 
set  wash  basins  or  washing  appliances  with  running 
water,  both  in  number  and  in  character  satisfactory  to 
the  Commissioner  of  Health.  Such  individual  appli- 
ances or  set  basins  shall  be  provided  on  each  floor 
satisfactory  to  the  Commissioner  of  Health.  In  every 
lodging  house,  shower  or  tub  baths  shall  be  provided. 
All  such  baths  shall  be  provided  with  hot  and  cold 
water  and  shall  at  all  times  be  accessible  for  the  use  of 
lodgers.  Provided,  however,  that  in  addition  to  the 
above  requirements,  the  installation  of  the  plumbing 
system  and  all  pipes,  fixtures,  etc.,  shall  be  installed 
and  subject  to  the  provisions  of  the  plumbing  ordinances 
of  this  city  relating  to  the  installation  and  maintenance 
of  such  plumbing.  All  alterations  or  construction  of 
above  mentioned  rooms  shall  be  in  accordance  with  the 
building  ordinance  of  this  city. 

SEC.  5.  Waier  and  Towels.     In  every  lodging  house 


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HOMELESS   MEN 

there  shall  be  at  all  times  provided  for  the  use  of  lodgers 
an  adequate  supply  of  water  and  clean  towels. 

Cleanliness.  Every  lodging  house  and  every  part 
thereof  shall  be  at  all  times  kept  clean  and  free  from 
dirt,  vermin,  filth,  garbage  and  rubbish,  in  or  upon 
the  premises  belonging  to  or  connected  with  the  same. 
All  water  closets,  wash  basins,  baths,  windows,  fixtures, 
fittings  and  painted  surfaces  shall  be  at  all  times  kept 
thoroughly  clean  and  in  good  repair.  The  floors  of  all 
rooms,  passages,  and  stairways  shall  be  sound,  in  good 
repair  and  either  be  shellaced  or  painted,  and  the  same 
shall  be  either  scrubbed,  wet-swept  or  otherwise  treated 
as  often  as  is  necessary  to  keep  them  thoroughly  clean. 
All  walls  and  ceilings  shall  be  thoroughly  cleaned  and 
whitewashed  at  least  twice  each  year,  or  as  often  as  the 
Department  of  Health  may  require. 

Spitting  and  Cuspidors.  In  each  hall,  room,  cubicle, 
water  closet,  wash  room  and  bath  room  of  every  lodging 
house  there  shall  be  provided  a  sufficient  number  of 
cuspidors  or  spittoons.  In  every  such  room,  etc.,  there 
shall  be  continuously  and  conspicuously  displayed  a 
sign  "  Spitting  forbidden  except  in  proper  receptacles/' 
All  such  cuspidors  or  spittoons  shall  be  constructed  of 
durable  waterproof  material,  shall  at  all  times  contain 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  disinfecting  liquid  as  the  Com- 
missioner of  Health  may  direct,  and  the  same  shall  be 
thoroughly  cleansed  and  disinfected  at  least  once  daily. 

Illness.  It, shall  be  the  duty  of  the  keeper,  agent  or 
owner  of  every  lodging  house  to  report  forthwith  to  the 
department  of  health  any  person  suffering  from  any  of 
the  following  infectious  diseases:  Measles,  diphtheria, 
membranous  croup,  scarlet  fever,  smallpox,  chicken- 
pox,  epidemic  cholera,  typhoid  fever,  rotheln,  plague 
or  tuberculosis.  Each  lodging  house  shall  be  provided 

340 


APPENDICES 

with  a  room  sufficiently  tight  to  be  used  for  a  fumigating 
room  if  necessary. 

SEC.  6.  All  licenses  granted  or  issued  under  this  or- 
dinance shall  be  subject  to  revocation  at  any  time  by 
the  City  Council  in  its  discretion. 

SEC.  7.  Any  person  violating  any  of  the  provisions 
of  this  ordinance  shall  on  conviction  thereof  before  the 
municipal  court  of  the  city  of  Minneapolis,  be  punished 
by  a  fine  of  not  to  exceed  $50  nor  less  than  $10  for  each 
offense,  or  upon  default  in  the  payment  of  such  fine, 
by  imprisonment  not  to  exceed  sixty  days. 

SEC.  8.  This  ordinance  shall  take  effect  and  be  in 
force  from  and  after  its  publication. 

Approved  May  i4th,  1910. 


APPENDIX   E 

REGULATIONS  GOVERNING  SANITARY  CON- 
DITIONS IN  LODGING  HOUSES,  ADOPTED 
BY  THE   MINNESOTA  STATE   BOARD 
OF  HEALTH,  JANUARY  n,  1910 

162.  These  regulations  governing  the  sanitary  con- 
ditions in  lodging  houses  shall  apply  only  to  cities 
having  a  population  of  10,000  and  upwards. 

163.  A  "lodging  house"  shall  be  taken  to  mean  and 
include  any  house  or  building  or  portion  thereof  pro- 
vided with  sleeping  quarters  arranged  on  the  "cubicle" 
plan,  i.  e.,  with  dividing  partition  walls  which  do  not 
extend  to  the  ceiling  or  with  sleeping  quarters  arranged 
on  the  dormitory  plan  and  in  which  persons  are  har- 
bored or  received  or  lodged  for  hire. 

164.  These  regulations  are  to  be  enforced  by  the 
local  health  officer  in  each  city. 

165.  No  building  or  part  of  any  building  shall  be 
used  after  May  i,  1910,  as  a  lodging  house  unless  the 
proprietor  thereof  has  received  a  license  from  the  local 
health  officer. 

1 66.  The  applicant  must  file  with  the  local  authorities 
in  duplicate  a  written  application  on  a  form  prescribed 
by  the  State  Board  of  Health,  dated,  signed  by  himself, 
and  correctly  setting  forth — 

(a)  The  full  name  and  address  of  the  proprietor 

of  the  proposed  lodging  house  and  of  the 
owner  of  the  premises  in  question; 

(b)  The  location  of  the  proposed  lodging  house; 

(c)  What  portions  of  the  building  or  buildings 

it  is  intended  to  use  as  a  lodging  house. 
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APPENDICES 

The  applicant  must  also  file  with  the  local  health 
authorities  a  certificate  from  the  local  authorities 
governing  the  construction  of  buildings,  and  from  the 
fire  department,  stating  that  the  owner  or  lessee  of 
said  premises  in  question  has  complied  with  the  regu- 
lations of  said  departments  applicable  to  said  premises 
as  a  lodging  house. 

After  an  application  for  a  lodging  house  license  is 
made  the  premises  must  be  inspected  by  the  local  health 
authorities  within  ten  (10)  days,  who  shall  report  upon 
the  same  in  writing  immediately  to  the  local  health 
officer  or  the  commissioner  of  health  as  to — 

(a)  The  character,  construction  and  size  of  the 

building; 

(b)  Whether  or  not  the  building  is  connected 

with   municipal   water  service  or  street 
sewer,  or  both; 

(c)  The  number,   location   and  dimensions  of 

each  proposed  sleeping  room; 

(d)  The  number  and  size  of  outside  windows  in 

each  proposed  sleeping  room ; 

(e)  The  number  of  water  closets    n  each  floor; 

(f)  The  number  of  set  wash  basins  on  each  floor; 

(g)  The  number  and  description  of  all  bathing 

apparatus  on  each  floor; 
(h)  The  number  of  beds  or  lodgers  allowed  in 

each  sleeping  room. 
167.  No  license  shall  be  granted  until — 

(a)  The  provisions  of  Regulation  166  have  been 

met,  and 

(b)  Until    all    regulations    relating    to    lodging 

houses  have  been  complied  with,  and 


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HOMELESS    MEN 

(c)  Until  there  has  been  paid  into  the  city 
treasury  a  license  fee  as  follows:  Two  (2) 
dollars  for  a  lodging  house  containing  not 
to  exceed  ten  (10)  beds,  and  ten  (10)  cents 
extra  for  each  additional  bed. 

168.  Annually  not  later  than  January    ist,   every 
owner  or  lessee  of  a  lodging  house  shall  pay  into  the 
city  treasury  a  fee  similar  to  that  prescribed  in  Regu- 
lation 167,  in  return  for  which  he  shall  receive  a  cer- 
tificate renewing  his  original  license;  but  the  same  shall 
not  be  issued  until  he  has  complied  with  all  regulations 
governing  lodging  houses. 

169.  Every  lodging  house  for  which  a  license  is  issued 
shall  be  inspected  by  an  officer  detailed  by  the  local 
health  authorities  within  two  (2)  weeks  after  the  issue 
of  such  permit,  and  thereafter  at  least  once  a  month. 

170.  No  keeper  of  a   lodging  house  shall   receive 
lodgers  therein  without  displaying  continuously  and 
conspicuously  in  the  office  or  hall  thereof  a  license 
issued  for  that  purpose  by  the  local  health  authorities. 

Such  license  shall  be  valid  only  for  the  premises  and 
for  the  period  prescribed  therein. 

171.  No  keeper  of  a  lodging  house  shall  accommodate 
in  any  sleeping  room  thereof  a  number  of  lodgers  greater 
than  the  number  permitted  by  the  local  health  authori- 
ties, nor  shall  he  accommodate  any  lodger  in  any  room 
for  which  permission  has  not  been  granted  for  such  use. 

172.  In  every  lodging  house  each  general  sleeping 
room  shall  always  be  adequately  ventilated  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  local  health  authorities,  and  in  such 
manner  as  to  be  beyond  the  control  of  lodgers. 

In  every  sleeping  room  the  minimum  floor  area  shall 
be  60  square  feet  per  bed,  and  under  no  circumstances 

344 


APPENDICES 

shall  there  be  provided  less  than  400  cubic  feet  of  air 
space  per  bed. 

Neither  side  of  any  bed  shall  be  at  any  time  nearer 
than  2  feet  to  the  side  of  any  other  bed. 

All  beds  shall  be  so  arranged  that  the  air  shall  circu- 
late freely  under  each  of  them. 

In  the  case  of  all  lodging  houses  for  which  permits 
are  for  the  first  time  applied  for  after  May  i,  1910,  no 
beds  or  bunks  shall  be  placed  one  above  another. 

173.  Except  when  extreme  severity  of  the  weather 
prevents,  all  windows  of  sleeping  rooms,  water  closets, 
wash  rooms  and  bath  rooms  shall  be  kept  open  at  least 
one  foot  at  the  bottom  and  one  foot  at  the  top  from 
10.00  a.  m.  to  2.00  p.  m.  daily. 

Beds  occupied  at  night  shall  be  turned  over  and 
exposed  to  the  air  daily  for  four  consecutive  hours. 

For  the  accommodation  of  lodgers  working  at  night, 
special  beds  or  rooms  shall  be  set  apart  for  their  use 
during  the  day;  but  the  bedding  of  such  beds  must  be 
turned  over  and  exposed  to  the  air  in  a  room  with 
outside  windows  opened,  as  above  described,  for  at 
least  four  consecutive  hours  daily. 

174.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  be  provided 
for  each  lodger  a  separate  bed  with  bedstead,  bedding 
and  bed  clothes  satisfactory  to  the  local  health  author- 
ities, and  no  such  lodger  shall  be  allowed  to  sleep  else- 
where than  in  such  bed. 

All  mattresses  shall  be  provided  with  waterproof 
coverings,  and  shall  be  so  arranged  as  to  be  at  all  times 
easily  capable  of  thorough  inspection. 

All  beds,  bed  clothing,  mattresses  and  pillows  shall 
always  be  kept  clean  and  free  from  vermin. 

Clean  sheets  and  clean  pillow  cases  shall  be  furnished 

345 


HOMELESS    MEN 

for  each  bed  at  least  once  a  week;  provided,  however, 
that  they  shall  be  furnished  as  often  as  a  new  lodger 
occupies  the  bed. 

In  the  case  of  all  lodging  houses  for  which  licenses  are 
for  the  first  time  applied  for  after  the  year  1909,  the 
frames  of  all  beds  shall  be  of  metal. 

175.  All  cubicles  shall  be  so  constructed  that  the 
partitions  thereof  shall  not  extend  higher  than  seven 
(7)  feet  above  the  floor  and  one  (i)  foot  from  the  ceiling, 
and  there  shall  be  a  space  of  at  least  six  (6)  inches 
between  the  lowest  part  of  said  partitions  and  the  floor. 

In  every  sleeping  room  all  windows  opening  to  the 
outer  air  shall  be  separated  from  any  cubicle  in  such 
room  by  an  unobstructed  corridor  at  least  three  (3) 
feet  wide. 

176.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  be  provided 
at  least  one  water  closet  on  each  floor,  and  water  closets 
shall  be  provided  on  every  such  floor  in  the  ratio  of  at 
least  one  to  every  fifteen  (15)  beds  or  fraction  thereof. 

Every  water  closet  shall  be  adequately  ventilated 
by  an  unobstructed  opening  to  the  outer  air. 

No  gas  or  offensive  smell  shall  be  allowed  to  escape 
from  any  water  closet,  sewer  or  outlet  into  any  sleeping 
room  or  part  thereof.  Each  water  closet  shall  be  pro- 
vided with  a  self-closing  door. 

In  no  lodging  house  shall  any  person  be  allowed  to 
sleep  in  a  room  in  which  there  is  a  water  closet. 

177.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  be  at  least 
one  (i)  wash  room  on  each  floor. 

In  every  such  wash  room  there  shall  be  provided, 
with  running  water,  set  wash  basins  or  individual 
washing  appliances  satisfactory  (both  in  number  and 
character)  to  the  local  health  authorities.  Such  in- 

346 


APPENDICES 

dividual  appliances  shall  be  provided  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  beds  on  the  same  floor,  as  follows:  One 
such  appliance  for  every  ten  (10)  beds  or  fraction 
thereof. 

178.  In  every  lodging  house,  shower  baths  shall  be 
provided  in  the  ratio  of  at  least  one  (i)  to  every  fifty 
(50)  beds  or  fraction  thereof;    or  tub  baths  shall  be 
provided  in  the  ratio  of  at  least  one  (i)  to  every  twenty- 
five  (25)  beds  or  fraction  thereof. 

All  such  baths  shall  be  provided  with  hot  and  cold 
running  water  and  shall  at  all  times  be  accessible  for 
the  use  of  lodgers,  free  of  charge. 

179.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  at  all  times 
be  provided  for  the  use  of  lodgers,  free  of  charge,  an 
adequate  supply  of  water  and  clean  towels. 

1 80.  In  every  lodging  house  the  floors  of  all  water 
closets,  wash  rooms  and  bath  rooms,  and  the  walls 
thereof  to  a  height  of  at  least  four  (4)  feet  above  the 
floor  shall  be  constructed  of  such  durable  waterproof 
material  (not  wood  or  metal)  as  may  be  approved  by 
the  local  health  authorities. 

181.  Every  lodging  house  and  every  part  thereof 
shall  at  all  times  be  kept  clean  and  free  from  dirt,  ver- 
min, filth,  garbage  and  rubbish  in  or  on  the  premises 
belonging  to  or  connected  with  the  same. 

All  water  closets,  wash  basins,  baths,  windows,  fix- 
tures, fittings  and  painted  surfaces  shall  at  all  times  be 
kept  thoroughly  clean  and  in  good  repair. 

The  floors,  walls  and  ceilings  of  all  rooms,  passages 
and  stairways  must  at  all  times  be  in  good  repair;  and 
the  floors  of  all  rooms,  passages  and  stairways  must  be 
scrubbed  or  wet-swept  at  least  once  daily  before  6  p.  m. 

If  painted  with  oil,  all  walls  and  ceilings  shall  be 

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HOMELESS    MEN 

thoroughly  washed  with  soap  and  water  twice  yearly, 
and  at  such  other  times  as  the  local  health  authorities 
may  direct. 

182.  In  each  hall,  room,  cubicle,  water  closet,  wash 
room  and  bath  room  of  every  lodging  house  there  shall 
be  provided  a  sufficient  number  of  cuspidors  or  spit- 
toons. 

In  every  such  room,  hall,  cubicle,  water  closet,  wash 
room  and  bath  room  there  shall  be  continuously  and 
conspicuously  displayed  a  sign  reading  as  follows: 
"Spitting  forbidden  except  in  proper  receptacles/' 

All  cuspidors  or  spittoons  shall  be  of  durable  water- 
proof material  and  of  a  form  to  be  prescribed  by  the 
health  authorities,  shall  be  thoroughly  cleansed  and 
disinfected  at  least  once  daily  before  6  p.  m.,  and  shall 
at  all  times  contain  such  a  quantity  of  a  disinfecting 
liquid  as  the  local  health  authorities  may  direct. 

183.  In  every  lodging  house,  all  sleeping  rooms  shall 
be  fumigated  at  least  once  every  two  weeks  in  such 
manner  as  the  local   health  authorities  may  direct. 
Disinfection  of  premises,  furniture  and  belongings  shall 
immediately  follow  the  death  or  removal  of  any  person 
suffering  from  an   infectious  disease   in   any  lodging 
house,  and  shall  be  performed  under  the  direction  of 
the  local  health  authorities. 

184.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  keeper,  agent  or 
owner  of  every  lodging  house  to  report  forthwith  to 
the  local  health  authorities  the  occurrence  of  any  illness 
in  said  house. 

185.  In  no  lodging  house  in  which  men  are  lodged 
(except  in  a  municipal  lodging  house  in  which  there  is 
a  separation  of  sexes  in  distinct  departments)  shall  any 
woman  or  girl  be  lodged,  or  any  boy  under  the  age  of 

348 


HOMELESS    MEN 

sixteen  years  unless  accompanied  by  his  father  or  legal 
male  guardian. 

186.  In  every  lodging  house  there  shall  be  set  apart 
at  least  one  (i)  room,  satisfactory  to  the  local  health 
authorities,  which  shall  be  reserved  at  all  times  as  a 
place  in  which  any  lodger  falling  ill  at  said  house  shall 
be  isolated. 

187.  In  case  any  lodging  house,  for  which  a  permit 
is  in  force,  is  not  or  shall  not  be  conducted  in  strict 
compliance  with  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Minnesota  and 
the  regulations  of  the  State  Board  of  Health,  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  any  person  having  knowledge  of  such  non- 
compliance  forthwith  to  report  the  particulars  to  the 
local  health  authorities. 

On  being  satisfied  that  any  lodging  house  for  which 
a  permit  is  in  force  fails  to  comply  strictly  with  the 
laws  of  Minnesota  and  the  regulations  of  the  State 
Board  of  Health,  the  local  health  authorities  shall 
promptly  notify  the  keeper,  agent  or  owner  of  such 
non-compliance  and  direct  that  the  defects  set  forth  in 
said  notice  be  remedied  within  a  period  of  time  to  be 
not  more  than  thirty  (30)  days. 

Failure  to  comply  with  such  an  order  within  the  time 
specified  therein  shall  be  sufficient  cause  for  revoking 
the  license  issued. 


349 


INDEX 


INDEX 


A.  B.,  Story  of,  211-213 
Accidental  beggars,  184-186,  187 
Accidental  criminals,  185 
Accidents,  as  a  cause  of  crippling, 

48 
false  claims  in  regard  to,  48, 

49 
industrial.     See     Industrial 

Occidents. 
protection  from,  61 
relief  for,  61 
responsibility  for,  51 
to  the  feeble-minded,    107- 

108 

to  the  insane,  96 
Addressing  companies,  132 
Adolescence,  269-270 
Adventurous  boys,  269-270 
After-careers    of    homeless,    va- 
grant and  runaway  boys,  262- 
264 

Age.     See  Old  Men. 
Aged  poor,  128 
Ages,  by  groups,  of  1000  men, 

(Table)  20 

of  Minneapolis  men,  (Table) 

306,  332.     See  also  tables 

of  General   Data  for  spe- 

cial groups. 

Agricultural  colonies  for  epilep- 

.tics,  1  1  1 

Albany,  Pavilion  F,  102 
Aliases,  Germans  of  many,  170- 
171 


Almshouse,  annual  exodus,  221. 
Alton,  Illinois,  197 
Amusements  for  boys,  269 
Ann  Arbor,  psychopathic  clinic, 

101 

Anti-social  beggars,  arrest,  172 
attempts  to  deal  with,  171- 

172 

attitude,  167-168 
average,  age,  166 
description,  166 
education,  167 
efforts  to  reform,  172-173 
mental  ability,  167 
proportion  of  criminals,  169 
publication   of   stories   and 

descriptions,  172 
stories    of    criminals,     169- 

171 
Appeals    for    help,    new   forms, 

69 

Applicants  at  Chicago  Bureau  of 
Charities,  various  kinds, 
14-16 

for  aid,   cases   not  investi- 
gated, 17,  1 8 

Applications,  number  and  kind, 

made   by   the    1000  homeless 

men    and    the     135    chronic 

beggars,  (Table)  299 

Arm,  loss  of,  story  of  locomotive 

engineer,  72 

Artificial  legs,  furnished  to  crip- 
ples, 63,  64,  82-83 


353 


INDEX 


BAD  boys,  248 
Baker,  case  of,  84 
Ball,  William  C,  xiv 
Baltimore,    psychopathic   clinic, 

101 
Baltimore    and   Ohio    Railroad, 

232 

Baltimore  fire,  69 
Beating  one's  way,  209-210,  212, 

213.334 
Beggar  applicant  for  work,  story 

of,  1 54-1 55 
Beggars,  antiquity,  i 
door  to  door,  148 
from  choice,  157 
ministers  and,  203 
Minneapolis,  333 
reporting  to  police,  168-169 
two  types,  157 
worthy  and  unworthy,  157. 
See  also  Chronic  Beggars. 
Begging,  artificial  leg  story,  82-83 
causes,  164 
Chicago,  9 

demoralizing  effect,  157 
from  choice,  62-63,  79-8 1 
psychology  of,  163-164 
without  asking,  59-60 
Begging-letter-writer,    story    of, 

167-168 

Belgium,  labor  colonies,  183 
Bell  boys,  247 
Better  days,  134 

Blind  and  deaf  men,  amount  of 
self-support  before  and  after 
injury,  by  condition,  (Table) 
281 

Blind  beggar,  story  of,  162 
Blind  beggar  and  boy  from  good 
home,  255-256 


Blind  old  man  of  seventy-three, 

163 

Blindness,  37 

Blows  on  the  head,  94,  1 16 
Board  of  Health,  328 

psychopathic  clinic,  101 
Bohemian  step-mother,  245 
Bootblack,  legless,  53-54 
Boy,  institution    bred,  story  of, 

181-182 
Boy  of  twelve  from  Iowa,  story 

of,  255-256 
Boy  scout,  270 
Boy  tramp,  case  of,  247 
Boy  tramps,  220,  271 
Boys,  homeless,  vagrant  and  run- 
away, after-careers,  262- 
264 
age  at  beginning  work,  246- 

247 

ages,  (Table)  240,  242 
bad,  248 

broken  homes,  245-246 
child  labor,  246 
city  or  country  origin,  243, 

244,  (Table)  304 
criminals,  248 
cruel  step-mother,  244 
dangerous  point,  268 
data  as  to  residence,  home, 
family,  (Tables)  304-305 
dealing  with,  239-241 
degeneracy,  270 
economic  causes,  273 
falsity,  242 

general  data,  (Table)  240 
good  inherent,  248 
homelessness,  alleged,  242 
homes,  character  of,  243, 244, 
(Table)  305 


354 


INDEX 


Boys,  incorrigible 

independence  of  spirit,  267, 

269,  271 

institutions,  248 
interviewing,  259 
methods    of    dealing    with, 

272-273 

nativity,  (Table)  240,  243 
non-runaways,    reasons    for 
coming  to  Chicago,  250- 
251 

occupations,  (Table)  240, 247 
orphans,  246 

physical  and  mental  condi- 
tion, (Table)  240 
proportion  to  men,  270-271 
reformation,  248-250 
reinstatement,  273 
requests,  250 
restlessness,  268-269 
runaways,  reasons  for  leav- 
ing home,  251.     See  Run- 
away Boys. 
school,  247 

seeking  work,  250,  251 
self-support,   difficulties   of, 

267-268 
sources,  241 
stories,  239,  242 
trespassing  on  railroads,  270 
truthfulness,  251 
wanderlust,  264 
Boys,  untrained,  179-184 
Boys'  clubs,  269 
Bridewell,  183 

Broken  homes  of  boys,  245-246 
Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  En- 
gineers, 72 

Brothers,   difficulties  with,  264, 
265 


lUilT.ilo,  200,  247 

Building  wrecking,  7,  8 

Bureau    for    the    Handicapped, 

New  York  City,  86 

Business  depressions,  135 

sense,  119,  120 


CALAMITIES,  victims  of,  69 

Californian,  sandbagged,  94 

Camps  for  boys,  270 

Canada,  241 

Canvassing,  132 

Care   for    the   insane,    need   of 

prompt,  95,  96,  101-103 
Carelessness  as  a  cause  of  work 

accidents,  84 
Cases  omitted  from  the  present 

study,  18 
Casual    labor,    cause    of  home- 

lessness,  group  study,  6 
foundry       near      Chicago, 
experience  of,    151,   154- 

155 

individual  study,  5 
investigating        applicants, 

154-155 
leaving     positions    without 

reason,  152-153 
nature,  148-149 
steady  work  and,  150-151 
uncertainty  about,  2,  3,  5,  6 
Census,  U.  S.,  21 

statistics  of  conjugal  condi- 
tion, 1900,  24 

Central  District  of  the  Bureau  of 
Charities,  proportion  of  non- 
resident cases,  193 
Central    Passenger    Association, 
16 


355 


INDEX 


Change,  boys'  desire  for,  268-269 
Character,  in  cripples,  52 
Charitable  societies  and  cripples, 

61,62 
Charity  Organization   Societies, 

67,  1 68,  262 
boy  cases,  272 
Charity    Organization    Society, 

New  York  City,  86,  108 
Charity  Transportation, National 
Conference    Rules,    208.     See 
also  Transportation. 
Chicago,    almshouse,    114,    115, 

118 

begging,  9 
city     and    state   boards  of 

health,  328 

Department  of  Health,  317 
Detention  Hospital  for  the 

Insane,  108 

employments    for    the    un- 
skilled, 7,  8 
floating  population,  7 
estimate  of  number  of  home- 
less men,  9 

lodging  houses,  7,  8,  314-329 
lodging     house     inspection, 

323 
Municipal  Lodging  House,  8, 

9.  37.  136,  317 

non-resident  dependents, 
192 

popularity  with  the  home- 
less, 139 

St.  Luke's  Hospital,  35,  36 

seasonal  employments,  7,  8 

South  side  officer  of  the 
Bureau  of  Charities,  14 

tramps,  8-9 

United  Charities,  14 


Chicago,  vagrancy  laws,  9 
vagrants,  8-9 
work  opportunities,  58-59 
yeggmen,  9 
Chicago  boy  of  seventeen,  story 

of,  248-250 
Chicago  boy  of  ten  who  left  good 

home,  254-255 

Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities,  3-4 

amalgamation  with  Chicago 

Relief  and  Aid  Society,  14 

applications  of  homeless  men, 

1900-1903,  14,  15 
cases    not  investigated,    17, 

18 

Central  District  office,  14,  17 
data  concerning  1000  home- 
less men,  (Table)  20,  21- 

25 

employment  seekers,  16 
helpable  applicants,  1 5 
information  from  applicants, 

nature  and  value,  25-30 
investigation  of  applicants, 

17 
opportunities   for  study  of 

homeless  men,  14-17 
railroad    transportation    at 

half  rates,  16 
reputation     with     homeless 

men,  15 

"samplers,"  14,  15 
Chicago  Relief  and  Aid  Society, 

'4 

Child  labor,  136,  246 
Children,  interest  in,  125 
Children's  aid  to  fathers,  122 
Choice,  161 

Chronic  beggars,  accidental  beg- 
gars, 184-186 


356 


INDEX 


Chronic  beggars,  brief  digest  of 
cases  of  1 6  of  the  beggars  of 
Class  IV,  (Table)  302-303 

ages,  (Table)    164 

anti-social  men  who  consider 
society  their  prey,  166- 
173.  See  Anti-social  Beg- 
gars. 

blind  old  man  of  seventy- 
three,  1 6) 

brief  digest  of  1 1  beggars  of 
Class  III,  (Table)  301 

choice,  158 

classes,  165 

college  men,  165 

conjugal  condition,  (Table) 
164 

dealing  with  as  a  class,  187- 
188 

definition,  156 

education,  165 

ex-minister,    case    of,    158- 

•59 

general  data,  (Table)  164 
individuals,  188 
miscellaneous  data,  165 
morphine  eater,  154-160 
nativity,  (Table)  164 
occupation  once  followed  by 

Class  II,  (Table)  300 
paralyzed  lad,  case  of,  1 58 
physical  and  mental  condi- 
tion, (Table)  300 
previous    occupations, 

(Table),  164 
refined  old  blind,  162 
reformation,  188 
summary    of    classes,    186- 

187 
treatment  needed,  187-188 


Chronic     beggars,     who     have 
drifted  into  the  habit,  173- 
1 79.       See      Degenerate- 
workmen-beggars. 
with    personal    and    social 

handicaps,  179-184 
unclassified,  186 
Chronic  dependent  cripples,  58- 

62 

Chronic  insane,  97-98 
Chronic  wanderers,  250 
Cincinnati,  139,  197,  202,  241 
City  boys  and  country,  243-244, 

(Table)  304 

City-bred  drifters,  179-184 
City     health     department     and 

lodging  houses,  328 
Civil  War,  125 

Claims  of  parents,  boys'  indiffer- 
ence to,  266 
Classification  of  homeless  men, 

10,   II 

Clerks  in  lodging  houses,  320 
Cleveland,  139 
Clubs  for  boys,  269 
Code  telegrams,  29 
College  men,  30,  (Table)  278 
aged,  120 
insane,  94 
Colonies,  compulsory  labor,  183, 

237 

Columbus,  O.,  105,  200 
Common  school  education,  30 
Companions,  boys',  264 
Compulsory  labor  colonies,  183, 

237 
Confirmed       wanderers.         See 

Tramps. 
Conjugal  condition  of  1000  men, 

20-24,  (Tables)  20  and  277 


357 


INDEX 


Conjugal    condition  of  Minnea- 
polis men,  (Table)  306 
of  old  men,  122 
Continual  wanderers,  218-220 
Convalescents,  40 
Cook  County  Hospital,  propor- 
tion of  non-residents,  193-194, 
Cook  County  Infirmary,  39 
Cooper,  story  of,  8 1 
Criminals,  229 

proportion    among    chronic 

beggars,  169 

proportion  among  Minnea- 
polis men,  333 
Cripples,   attitude  of  one  man 

toward,  142 
by  accident  or  from  birth, 

48-53 

by  disease,  45-48;  amount  of 
self-support  before  and 
after  injury,  by  condition, 
(Tables)  46  and  283 ;  gen- 
eral data  concerning,  (Ta- 
ble) 46 

by  general  accident  or  from 
birth,  amount  of  self- 
support  before  and  after 
injury,  (Table)  284;  by 
causes  and  age  group, 
(Table)  282;  causes  of 
crippling,  (Table)  50 

character,  52 

charities  and,  61,  62 

chronically  dependent,  58- 
62 

claiming  industrial  acci- 
dents, occupation  before 
and  after  injury,  (Table) 
286;  amount  of  self-sup- 
port before  and  after,  (Ta- 


bles) 78  and  287;  general 

data  concerning,  (Table) 

78 
deformed,      injured        and 

maimed,  twenty-two  cases 

in  Minneapolis,  312-313 
fake,  35 
helpable,  53-58 
inadequate  provision  for,  61, 

62 

industrial  position,  51 
mendicant,  64 
parasites,  52,  62-65 
proportion,  44-45 
self-support  among,  47-48, 

51-52.     See  also   general 

tables. 

vagrancy  among,  53 
Cruel  father,  265 
Cruelty  in  boy's  homes,  245 
Cubicle    rooming    houses.     See 
under  Lodging  Houses. 


DAKOTAS,  330 

Damages,  84 

Deaf  mute  tramp,  story  t>f,  218- 

219 
Deceptions    as    to    occupations, 

134 

Defects  and  diseases,  (Table)  36 
among  Minneapolis  men,  332 
data  on  special  groups, 

(Table)  279 
Defects  or  illness  as  a  cause  for 

leaving  home,  230 
Deformed  cripple  in  wheel  chair, 

case  of,  205-206 

Degeneracy  among  Minneapolis 
men,  333 


358 


INDEX 


Degenerate  -  workmen     beggars, 
average  age,  176 
beginnings,  174-175 
causes,  175 
character,  174 
degradation,  178 
drunkenness,  176 
education,  177 
habits,  176 
hopelessness,  178 
lines  of  work,  177 
lodging  house  life,  176-177 
numbers,  174 

society's  responsibility,  179 
work    of    itself    insufficient 

help,  178 
Delusions  of  the  insane,  growth, 

95.  96-97 
Denver,  322 

Dependent  cripples,  58-62 
additional  handicaps,  59 
Dependents,     laws       regulating 
passage  and  transfer,  191 
non-resident,  207 
problem  of  unrestricted  mi- 
gration, 193-194 
returning,  192 
Deserting  the  family,   221-222, 

228 

Detention  Hospital   for  the   In- 
sane, Chicago,  1 08 
Disease,  crippling  effects,  45,  46 

vagrancy  and,  41-43 
Disgrace,  227 
Dishwashing  as  occupation,  131, 

132 
Doing  well,  boys  after  running 

away,  263 

Door-to-door  seekers  for  work, 
148 


Drifters,  city-bred,  179-184 
Drinking  habits,  40,  226 

as  a  handicap  in  accident,  86 
as  a  cause  of  insanity,  98 
of  Minneapolis  men,  333 
results,  46 

Drug  habits,  40,  226 
Drunkards,  institutions  for,  178 
Dunning  (almshouse),   39,    114, 
115,    118,    127,    162,    198, 
322 
tuberculosis    hospital,    323, 

324,  326 
Dysentery,  41 


EDUCATED  German  criminal  beg- 
gars, 170-171 
Education,  amount  among  1000 

men,  (Table)  20,  30,  31 
lack  of  early,  179-184 
of    Minneapolis   men,    333. 

See  also  general  tables. 
Elevated  railroad  employe,  story 

of,  73'  74 
"  Elimination  of  the  Tramp,  The," 

citation  from,  214 
E.  M.,  story  of,  72 
Employers'  aid  of  old  men,  122- 

123,  133 

Employment,  difficulty  of  home- 
less boys'  getting,  267-268 
finding   and    keeping,    151, 

«54 

need  of  investigating  appli- 
cants, 154-155 

of  Minneapolis  men,  333-334 

seekers,  16 

sometimes  insufficient  help 
of  itself,  178 


359 


INDEX 


End-of-the-line  occupations,  132 
Enemies,  delusion  of,  93,  96 
Engineer,  locomotive,  story  of,  72 
England,  aged  poor,  128 
English  pensioned  tramp,  case  of, 

223 
Epileptic  orphan  from  Virginia, 

story  of,  199-201 
Epileptic  young  man  desirous  of 
going  to  New  York,  story  of, 
198-199 

Epileptic  wanderers,  230 
Epileptics,  agricultural  colonies, 

in 

general  data,  (Table)  90 
Illinois,  NO-HI 
number  in  the  U.  S.,  no 
problem,  109-1 10 
provision  for  care  among  the 

states,  no,  in 
Escaping  the  law,  229-230 
Evans,  William  A.,  xiii 
Examinations,  physical,  33-37 
Ex-minister,  case  of  degeneracy, 

158-159 

Experts  in  investigation,  66 
Eye,  loss  of,  40 


FACTORY  pressure,  136 

Fagin,  Negro,  249 

Failure  at  home,  226-227 

Fake  cripples,  35 

False  claims  in  regard  to  acci- 
dents, 48,  49 

False  stories,  of  Minneapolis 
men,  333 

Falsehood  and  truth  in  state- 
ments of  homeless  men,  pro- 
portion, 24,  25 


Family  aid  for  old  men,  121,  122 

in  cases  of  accidents,  77 
Family  quarrels,  228-229 
Farm  School  at  Glenwood,  256 
Father,  cruelty  of,  265 
Federal  law,  207 
Federal  laws  for  tramps,  235 
Feeble-minded,  the  average  age, 

108 

cases  of  two  lads,  104-106 
condition,  103-104 
general  data,  (Table)  90 
German  immigrants,  106-107 
legal  residence,  106 
length  of  time  known,  109 
problem,  104-106 
return  of  men  to  homes  else- 
where, 106-109 
treatment,  106-109 
unaccountable       accidents, 

107-108 
Fifty,  age  of,  229 

employment  after,  112 
Final  occupations,  132 
Financial  failure,  227 
Fingers,  loss  of,  40-41,  52,  64 
First  care  for  the  insane,  101-103 
First  generation  Americans,  332, 

333 

Floating  population,  Chicago,  7 

politicians  and,  9 
Flynt,  Josiah,  222 
Food,  mental  condition  and,  91, 

95,  96,  loo 
Foreigners,  332.  333 
Forgery,  230 

Fortune,  making  a,  267-268 
-   Forty,  employment  after,  112 
I    Foundry  experience,  with  home- 
less men,  151,  154-155 


36o 


INDEX 


Fresh  air  in  lodging  houses,  316, 
3 "7.  3i8 

Friencllessness  of  old  men,  123 
Friendly  help,  method,  67,  68 


GALVESTON  flood,  69 

Games  in  city  playgrounds,  269 

(.ifiu-ral  data,  Minneapolis  men, 

(Table)  306 

German  baker,  case  of,  84-85 
German  criminal  beggars,  stories 

of,  170-171 
German    immigrants,    cases    of 

feeble-minded,  106-107 
German  of   Russian   parentage, 

case  of,  85 
Germans,  among  homeless  men, 

332 
Germany,  243 

aged  poor  in,  128 
Glenwood,  111.,  256 
Good   homes,   boys  who   leave, 

254-262,  (Table)  305 
Groups,  10 


HALF-RATE  transportation,  16,  17 
Handicapped,   Bureau  for,  New 

York  City,  86 
Hard  times,  135 
Harvesting,  7 
Health,  32-43 

of    Minneapolis   men,    332. 

See  also  Physical  Condition. 

Health  boards,  need  of  co-opera- 

.  tion  of  city  and   state,  328- 

329 
Hebrew    and    Sanskrit    student 


tramp,  224 


36, 


Help,     for     cripples,     need    of 

prompt,  59-62 
too  much  at  once,  65 
effectual,  66-67 
work  without  investigation, 

Helpable  cripples,  53-58 
Helpable  men,  15 
Hereditary  insanity,  95 
Heredity,  influence,  154-160 
High  school  graduates,  31 
Homeless  men,  antiquity,  i 
classification,  10,  n 
group  study  of  causes,  6 
individual  study  of  causes,  5 
recent  increase,  2 
scope  of  the  present  work, 

4.  12,  13 
use  of  term  in  the  present 

work,  13 
Homelessness,  of  boys,  alleged, 

242 

simple,  228-229 
Homes,  boys',  character  of,  243, 

244,  (Table)  305 
breaking  up  of,  24 
for  the  old,  125-128 
Honesty,  odd,  79-81 
Horse  dealer,  case  of,  132-133 
Hospitals,  cripples  and,  61,  62 

for  the  insane,  101-103 
Hurry,  136-137 


ICE-CUTTING,  7,  142-144,  145 
Idleness,     demoralizing    effects, 

146-148 
Idleness,  an  Irishman's  case,  141- 

'44 

among  tramps,  224 


INDEX 


Ignorance  as  a  handicap  in  acci- 
dent, 85,  86 

Illinois,  epileptics  in,  1 10-1 1 1 
institutions  for  the  aged,  128 
law  in  regard   to  space  in 
lodging     house     sleeping 
rooms,  316 

lodging  house  laws,  328 
Illiterates,  30 

Immigration  department,  107 
Impostors,  14,  15,  64,  65,  66 
Imposture,  167 

a  business,  167,  168 
Imprisonment  of  vagrants,    182, 

183 

Incapacity,  instances  of,  181,  182 
Independence  maintained  under 

double  handicap,  81-83 
Independence  of  spirit  in  Ameri- 
can boys,  267,  269,  271 
Indiana,  237 

Industrial  accidents,  49,  69-87 
among  Minneapolis  men,  332 
as  basis  of  appeal  for  aid, 

70 
brief  digest  of  cases  of   17 

men,  (Table)  289 
carelessness,  84 
damages,  84 

determined  one-legged  beg- 
gar, story  of,  79-81 
difficulty  of  securing  work 

after,  85 
drink,  86 
effect  on  general  course  of 

life,  77,  79 
false  stories,  71-74 
family  care,  77 
general  data,  (Table)  78 
ignorance,  85,  86 


Industrial  accidents,  eleven 
cases  in  Minneapolis, 
310-311 

independence  maintained, 
story  of,  81-83 

laws,  86 

method  of  investigating  sto- 
ries, 72-74 

miscellaneous  data,  84 

need  of  investigating  stories, 
70 

permanent  injuries,  84,  85, 

87 

personal  equation,  87 
proportion  of  victims,  70-77 
proved    cases,     percentage, 

76-77 

responsibility,  84,  85 
self-support,     amount     of, 

(Table)  78 

uninvestigated  cases,  75-76 
vagrancy  and,  69-87 
Industrial    depression  as  causes 

of  vagrancy,  135-136 
Industry,  old  men  and,  1 12 

rapid  pace,  136-137 
Inefficiency,  227-228 
Information,  good  source,  28 
Injuries,  effect  on  general  course 

of  life,  77,  79 
permanent,  84,  85,  87 
seriousness,  40-41 
Inquiry,  value  of  skilful,  25 
Insane,  the,  42,  43,  89-103 
ages,  (Table)  92 
blows  on  the  head,  94,  1 16 
care,  need  of  prompt,  95,  96, 

101-103 

cause  or  effect  of  vagrancy, 
89-91 


362 


INDEX 


Insane,  the,  additional  handicaps 
of  48  men,  (Table)  291 

causes,  89-95 

chronic,  97-98 

college  men,  94 

curability,  101 

definition,  88 

duration  of  disorder,  (Table) 
92 

"enemies,"  93,  96 

food  supply,  100 

general  data,  (Tables)  90  and 
92 

growth  of  delusion,  95,  96- 

97 

habits,  (Table)  90 
heredity,  95 
hospitals,  101-103 
institutions,  91,  97 
legal  residence,  (Table)  290 
length     of     time     known, 

nativity,  (Table)  90 
losing  position,  93,  94 
Minneapolis  men,  332 
nativity,  (Table)  90 
occupations,  (Table)  92 
proportion,  88 
psychopathic    clinics,     101- 

103 

recent,  97 
refined  men,  94 
relapses,  97,  99 
self-support  among,  (Table) 

90,  95 

starvation,  a  cause  of,  95,  96 
sufferings,  95 
temporary,  94 
trades      and      occupations, 

(Tables)  92  and  291 
treatment,  98-99 


Insane,  the,  unaccountable  acci- 

ik-nts,  96 

under-nourishment,  91 
wanderers,  230 
worry,  91 

Institution-bred  men,  182 
Institution    records,    of    insane 

men,  91,  97 
of  homeless  boys,  248 
of  Minneapolis  men,  333 
Institutions     needed,     125-128, 

236 

Insurance  for  old  age,  128 
Interstate        immigration        of 
paupers  and  dependents,  189, 
208 

Investigated      cases,       varying 
amounts  of  information,  19,  20 
Investigation    of    applicants    at 
the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Chari- 
ties, 17 
Investigation   of   applicants   for 

work,  need  of,  154-155 
when  not  made,  17,  18 
Investigation  experts,  66 
Iowa,  255,  256 
Irishman  of  forty,  story  of,  141- 

144 

Iron-worker,  story  of,  79-81 
Iroquois  Theater  fire,  69 

JACKSONVILLE,  111.,  106 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Medi- 
cal School,  102 
Joliet,  197 
Juvenile  Court,  256 


KANSAS,  institution  for  the  aged, 
127 


363 


INDEX 


Kansas  City,  139,  330 

Kelly,  Edmond,  quoted  as  to  the 

number  of  tramps  in  America, 

214 

Klondike,  69 
Koren,  John,  xiv 


LABOR  colonies,  183,  237 

Lameness,  37 

Laws  regulating  lodging  houses, 

327-328,  335,  342 
Lead  poisoning,  47 
Leaving  home,  92,  93,  104,  185. 

See  also  Runaway  Boys. 
breaking  of  ties,  228-229 
defects  or  illness,  230 
to  escape  the  law,  229-230 
failure  at  home,  226-227 
inefficiency,  227-228 
reasons  for,  225-231 
probable  reasons  in  case  of 

runaway  boys,  264 

restlessness  a  cause,  225 

seeking  work,  225-226 

Leaving  positions  without  reason, 

152-153 

Legal  residence,  federal  law,  207 
of  indigent  persons,  161 
of     insane,    feeble-minded, 
and  epileptic,  (Table)  290 
state  laws,  206-207 
Legs,  loss  of  both,  52,  53, 54,62-63 
Length  of  time  1000  men  were 

known  to  the  office,  28-29 
Letters  "to  whom  it  may  con- 
cern," 198 

Lewis,  Orlando  F.,  quoted  as  to 
number  of  trespassers  killed  on 
railroads,  215 


L.  G.,  case  of,  117-118 
Licentiousness,  results,  46 
Lincoln,  111.,  105 
Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor,  127 
Locomotive  Engineers,  Brother- 
hood of,  72 

Locomotor  ataxia,  37,  45,  46 
Lodging     houses,     aisles,     320- 

321 
application  for,   Minnesota, 

335 

baths,  Minneapolis  law,  339 
baths,  Minnesota  law,  347 
bedding,  319-320,  337 
beds,  etc.,  Minneapolis  law, 

337-338 

beds,etc., Minnesota  law,  345 
blankets,  319 
blind  alleys,  320-321 
Chicago,  314-329 
classes  of  inmates,  9,  10 
cleanliness,  Minneapolis  law, 

340 
cleanliness,  Minnesota  law, 

347 

clerks,  320 
conditions,  145 
cubicle  type,  315,  317-318 
definition,  Minneapolis  law, 

335 
Department  of  Health,  223, 

326 

detailed  account,  314-329 
dormitory  type,  315-316 
fees,  Minnesota,  344 
fire  risk,  320-321 
floors,  3 19,  323 
fresh  air,  316,  317,  318 
fumigation,  326 
Illinois  law,  316 


364 


INDEX 


Lodging  houses,  illness,  Minne- 
apolis, 340,  341 
illness,  Minnesota  law,  348 
increase  in  recent  years,  >,\.\ 
infection,  322-323,  324 
insanitary  condition,  39 
inspection  in  Chicago,  323 
jurisdiction,  327 
laws,  327 
licenses,   Minneapolis,    355- 

336,  341 

licenses,  Minnesota  law,  343 
mattresses,  319 
Minneapolis,  327,  328,  342 
Minneapolis  ordinance,  335 
Minnesota   State   Board  of 
Health  regulations  adopt- 
ed Jan.  ii,  1910,  342 
moral  atmosphere,  58 
moral    and    physical    evils, 

314-315 

New  York  law  as  to  mat- 
tresses, 319 

number,  7 

odors,  319 

over-crowded  conditions, 
322 

partitions,  326 

physical  examinations,  33 

privacy,  317 

productive  of  insanity,  97 

recent  increase,  2 

robbery  in,  146,  318 

sanitation,  317,  326 

sanitation,  Minneapolis  law, 

338-339 
•  sanitation,    Minnesota   law, 

342 

sheets,  319-320 
small  hotels,  322 


Lodging  houses,  source  of  in- 
fection, 322-323 

sources  of  information,  320 

spitting,  323 

spitting,  Minneapolis  law, 
340 

spitting,  Minnesota  law,  348 

toilet  rooms,  317,  319 

tuberculosis  contracted  in, 
38 

tuberculous  lodgers,  323- 
326 

two  types,  3 1 5 

ventilation,  316,  317,  318 

ventilation  in  cubicle  type, 
318 

ventilation  in   Minneapolis, 

337 
ventilation,   Minnesota  law, 

345 

water  closets,  317 
Los  Angeles,  204,  205,  330 
Los  Angeles  beggar,  case  of,  204, 

205 

Losing  positions,  93,  94 
Loss  of  savings,  1 19-120 
Lumbering,  7 
Lumber  camps,  men  from,  330 


McLEAN,  Francis  H.,  xiii 

Maimed.     See  Cripples. 

Man  of  eighty-six,  story  of,  202- 

203 
Man  of  ninety-four,  passed  on  in 

Illinois,  197-198 
Man  of  seventy-five,  passed  on 

from  New  York  State,  195-197 
Manual  training,  269 
Martinique,  99 


365 


INDEX 


Masons,  196 

Massachusetts,  Board  of  Health, 

328 

institutions,  237 
railway  trespass  laws,  227 
vagrancy  law,  236,  237 
Matrimonial  advertisement,  case 

of  answering,  1 16 
Mendicant  cripples,  64 
Mental    deficiencies,    forms,  88, 

89 

Mental  incapacity,  181-182 
Messenger  boy,  story  of,  181 
Messenger  boys,  247 
Method  of  the  present  investiga- 
tion, 14-31 

applicants,  kinds  of,  14-17 
general  data,  (Table)  20 
information  from  applicants, 

nature  and  value,  25-30 
information  from  investiga- 
tion, verifying,  19 
investigation  of  cases,  17-19 
Mexico,  202 
Meyer,  Prof.  Adolf,  xiv 

quoted  on  early  care  for  the 

insane,  102 
Middle  West,  vagrancy  problem, 

'39 

Migration  of  dependents,  laws, 
191 

Migration  of  paupers  and  de- 
pendents, 189-208 

Ministers,  beggars  and,  203 

Minneapolis  Associated  Charities, 

330,331 
Minneapolis  homeless  men,  139, 

330-334 

age,  (Table)  306,  332 
beggars,  333 


Minneapolis  homeless  home, 
comparison  with  Chicago 
study,  332-334 

conjugal  condition,  (Table) 
306 

criminals,  333 

defectives,  332 

deformed,  injured,  crippled 
and  maimed,  twenty-two 
cases,  (Table)  312-313 

degeneracy,  333 

drink  habits,  333 

education,  333 

employment,  333-334 

false  stories,  333 

foreigners,  333~334 

general  data,  (Table)  306 

health,  332 

industrial  accidents,  332 

industrial  accidents,  eleven 
cases,  (Table)  310-311 

insanity,  332 

institutional  records,  333 

kinds  of  application,  (Table) 
306 

laws,  331 

length  of  time  in  Minneapo- 
lis before  application,  (Ta- 
ble) 306 

lodging  house  conditions, 
327,  328,  334 

municipal  lodging  house,  33 1 

nationality,  (Table)  306, 332 

occupations,  (Table)  307, 
(Table),  309 

ordinance  regulating  lodging 
houses,  335 

physical  and  mental  condi- 
tions, (Table)  308,  332 

seasonal  labor,  334 


INDEX 


Minneapolis  homeless  men,  state 

regulations,  342 
statistics,  330,  331 
study  of  cases,  }  \  i 
tuberculosis,  332 
Minnesota,  237 
Minnesota      State      Board      of 

Health,  328 
regulations       for       lodging 

houses,  342 
Mississippi  Valley,  seasonal  labor, 

139.  145 

Monadnock  Block,  73 
Moral    perversion,    influence   of 

heredity,  159-160 
Moral    responsibility,   difference 

in,  158-159 

Morphine  eater,  case  of,  159-160 
Mullenbach,  James,  xiii 
Municipal     Lodging    House    of 

Chicago,  8,  9,  37,  136 
Municipal  lodging  houses,  Min- 
neapolis, 331 
physical  examination,  33 
physicians,  33 
Murray,  Oscar  G.,  232 


NATIONAL  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction,  208,  232 
Nativity,  of  1000  men,  (Table) 

20,  21 

of  Minneapolis  men,  (Table) 
306,  332 

See  also  general  tables. 
Necessity,  158-161 

.     begging  from,  184-186 
Neglected  childhood,  179-180 
Negro  laborer,  case  of  a,  65 
Negro  strike-breaker,  story  of,  54 


Negro  tra.nps,  216,  217 
Newark,  N.  J.,  200 
New  Orleans,  202,  243 
Newsboys,  246,  247 
Newsboys'  Home,  256 
New  York  City,  Bureau  for  the 
Handic;ippi'il,  86 

Charity    Organization     So- 
ciety, 86,  108 

cheap     lodging    houses,    7, 

314 

psychopathic  clinic,  101 
New    York    State    compulsory 

labor  colony,  237 
Non-residents,  193 
Non-runaway  boys,  reasons  for 

coming  to  Chicago,  250-251 
Norwegian  criminal  beggar,  story 

of,  169-170 
Nothing  to  do,  219 


OCCUPATIONAL    accidents.      See 

Industrial  Accidents. 
Occupational  age  limits,  1 12 
Occupations,     business     depres- 
sions, 135 

causes  of  diversity,  135 
Chicago    and     Minneapolis 

compared,  (Table)  307 
deceptions,  134,  137 
difficulty     of     listing     men 

under  one,  129-132 
diversity,  129-132 
employers'  aid,  133-134 
factory  pressure,  136-137 
final,  132 

grouping,  (Table)  135 
horse  dealer,  case  of,    132- 


133 


367 


INDEX 


Occupations  of  Minneapolis  men, 
(Table)  309 

of  91  skilled  workers,  (Table) 
293-294 

of  looo  homeless  men, 
(Table)  295-298 

once  followed  by  chronic 
beggarsofClassII,(TabIe) 
300 

principle  used  in  listing,  138 

unknown,  137-138 
Odd  jobs,  132,  148-149.  See  also 

Casual  Labor. 
Ohio,  256 

institution  for  the  aged,  128 

runaway  boy,  256 
Old  age  pensions,  128 
Old  men,  homeless,  112-128 

ages,  (Table)  1 14 

almshouse,  114,  115 

causes  of  dependence,  117, 
119 

children's  aid,  122 

conjugal  condition,  122 

conjugal  condition  and  will- 
ingness and  ability  of 
children  to  aid  them, 
(Table)  292 

definition,  1 15 

difficulty  of  finding  em- 
ployment, I  1 2- 1  15 

difficulty  of  finding  help  for, 
1 20 

Dunning  (almshouse),    114, 

115.  127 
employers'     aid,      122-123, 

133 

exceptional  cases,  116 
friendlessness,  123 
general  data,  (Table)  1 14 


Old  men.  homeless,  good  char- 
acter cases,  118-121 
homes  and  institutions,  125- 

128 
licentious   and    spend-thrift 

cases,  1 1 7- n  8 
loss  of  savings,  1 19-120 
nativity,  (Table)  114,  115 
occupations,  (Table)  114 
pensions,  123-124,  133 
poorhouse,  118,  124,  127 
pride,  121 

private  institutions,  127-128 
problems,  118-121,  126 
refined,  120 
relatives'  aid,  121 
self-support,     (Table)     114, 

116,  117 

soldiers'  homes,  125,  127 
various  plans  for  in  different 

countries,  128 
Old  women,  126 
Omaha,  139,  330 
One-legged   beggars,   stories  of, 

68,79-81 

One-legged  cripples,  64 
Ordinance     regulating     lodging 

houses  in  Minneapolis,  335 
Orphan  boys,  246 
Orphanage  graduates,  182 
Orphanages,  246 
Osier,  Dr.,  69-70 


PACE,  keeping  up  with  the,  136- 

'37 

Painters,  47 
Pangborn,  Jos.  G.,  232 
Paralysis,  45,  46 
causes,  46,  47 


368 


INDEX 


Paralysis,  self-support  under,  47 
P.ir.iK  /<.'il  I. ul,  case  of,  158 
Parasites,  52,  166-173.    Sec.7»i//- 

social  Beggars. 
Parasitic  cripples,  62-65 
Parentage,  statistics,  20 
Parents'  claims,   boys'   indiffer- 
ence to,  266 

"Passed  on"  paupers,  206 
Passenger  Associations,  16 
"Passing  on"  system,  191-193 

stories  of,  195-206 
Pauper  family  passed  on  from 
Pennsylvania  to  Chicago,  192- 

193 

Pawning,  104 
Peddling,  100,  132 
Pennsylvania,  237 
Pensioned  tramps,  223 
Pensions  from  friends  for  old  men, 

123-124,  133 
Peoria,  Illinois,  197 
Periodic  deserters  of  family,  22 1- 

222 

Periodical  wandering,  221-222 
Permanently    crippled    through 
general  accident  or  from 
birth,     amount    of    self- 
support  before  and  after 
injury,  (Table)  285 
by   alleged   industrial   acci- 
dents,   amount    of    self- 
support  before  and  after 
injury,  (Table)  288 
Permanently   injured   in    actual 
and  probable  industrial  acci- 
dents, brief  digest  of  17  cases, 
(Table)  289 

Personal  interest,  67,  68 
Philadelphia,  203,  204 


"Phoney"  cripples,  35 
Physical  condition  of  homeless 
men,  32-43 

able-bodied,  34 

accidents,  42 

convalescents,  40 

defects  and  diseases,  (Table) 

36,  37 

drink  and  drugs,  40 
examination  by  the  Chicago 

Bureau  of  Charities,  34 
examinations  by  charitable 

societies,  33 
examinations      in      lodging 

houses,  33 

extent  of  handicap,  39,  40 
fake  cripples,  35 
importance,  40 
injuries,  seriousness,  40-41 
insanity,  42,  43 
of  Minneapolis  men,  (Table) 

308,  332 

tuberculosis,  37-39 
vagrancy  and,  41-43 
venereal  diseases,  37 
Physician  forger,  story  of,  230 
Pittsburgh,  202,  203 
Playgrounds,  city,  269 
Podstata,  Dr.  V.  H.,  xiv 
Police  tramp  disposal,  234 
Politicians,    floating    population 

and,  9 

Poorhouses,    124,    127,   161,   162 
Pressure  in  factories,  etc.,  136 
Pride,  boys',  266-267 

obstacle  in  old  men,  120 
Printer,  story  of,  211-213 
Promptness  in  help,  need  of,  59- 

62 
Psychology  of  begging,  163-164 


369 


INDEX 


Psychopathic  clinics,  101-103 
Publication  of  descriptions  and 
stories  of  criminal  beggars,  172 


QUEERNESS,  93 


RAILROAD  accidents,  alleged,  72- 

74 

Railroad  construction,  7 
Railroad  police  and  tramps,  233- 

234 
Railroad  transportation  at  half 

rates,  16 
Railroads,  boy  trespassers,  270, 

271 

cost  of  tramps,  232-233 
responsibility    for    tramps, 

234 

state  laws  as  to  tramps,  233- 
234 

tramps  and,  209-2 1 o 

trespass  laws,  236,  237 

trespassers  killed,  214-215 

unguarded,  231,  270,  272 
Ranch  owner,  264 
References,  value  of,  27,  28 
Refinement,  insanity  and,  94 
Reformation,  boy  of  seventeen, 
248-250 

criminal  beggars,  172-173 

runaway  boys,  263 
Reinstatement  of  runaway  boys, 

259-262,  273 
Relapses,  beggars,  172 

the  insane,  97,  99 
Relatives,  aid  for  old  men,  121 

value  of  testimony,  28 
Remittance  men,  223 


Responsibility  for  accidents,  84, 

85 
Responsibility  of  men  crippled  by 

accident,  51 
Restlessness  in  boys,  257,  268- 

269 

of  tramps,  218-220 
Rheumatism,  42,  45,  46,  47,  48 
Robbery  in  lodging  houses,  146, 

3.8 

Rochester,  N.  Y.,  106,  204,  205 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  129 
Rounders,  14,  15 
Runaway  boys,  242,  252-262 
after-careers,  258 
average  age,  252 
characteristics,  252-253 
Chicago  boy  of  ten,  story  of, 

254-255 

cruel  father,  265 
data  as  to  residence,  homes, 

family,  (Tables)  304-305 
family  quarrels,  264-266 
fictitious  stories,  251 
from  good  homes,  254-256 
general      data      concerning 

homeless,    vagrant     and, 

(Table)  240 
impulse,  253 
indifference      to      parental 

claims,  266 

instinct  to  wander,  253 
peculiar    case    of     lad     of 

seventeen,  258-259 
pride,  266-267 
probable  reasons  for  leaving 

home,  264 

psychology,  252-253 
reasons   for   leaving   home, 

251,  257,  265 


370 


INDEX 


Runaway     boys,     reformation. 

story  of  a.  259-262 
scolding  at  home,  264,  265 
spring  fever,  257 
strange  ways,  254-255 
tired  of  school,  257 
unjust  father,  264-265 
w.irulerlust,  257-258,  264 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  208 
Russian,    story  of  young,   136- 
'37 


ST.  Louis,  139,  241,  330 

St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Chicago,  25, 

36 
St.   Paul,   Minn.,  72,    139,    159, 

218,330 
"Sampling"    the    office    of    the 

Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities, 

'4 
San  Francisco,  242,  330 

earthquake,  69 
Sandbagging,  94,  116 
Savings,  144-145,  146 
Scandals,  226 
Scandinavians,  332 
School,  boys  tired  of,  257 
Schooling,  30,  31 
Seasonal  employments,  Chicago, 

7.8 
Seasonal  labor,  334 

character    and    conditions, 
140-141 

field,  139 

length  of  time  in  one  place, 
140 

lodging  house  life,  145-148 

Middle  West,  139 

Minneapolis,  334 


Seasonal  labor,   odd  jobs,   148- 
149.      See    also     Casual 
Labor. 
philosophy  of  workers,  141- 

145 

savings,  144-145,  146 
Seasonal  wandering,  220-221 
Seeking  work,  225-226 
Self-support,  among  insane  men, 

95 
among  insane,  feeble-minded 

and  epileptic,  (Table)  90 
among    men    crippled     by 

accident   or    from    birth, 

(Table)  50 
among    men    crippled     by 

disease,    (Table)    46,   47, 

48 
among  old  men,  (Table)  1 14, 

1 16,  1 17 

boy's  difficulties,  267-268 
character  in,  52 
crippled  young  man,  54-56 
under  double  handicap,  81- 

83 

Separation  from  family,  23 

Single  men,  24 

Sisters,  difficulties  with,  264,  265 

Sixty,  age  of,  112,  113,  117 
men  over,  70 

Skilled  workers,  occupations  of 
91,  (Table)  293-294 

Slums,  179 

Smallpox,  329 

Snow  removal,  8 

Soap  peddler,  case  of,  100 

Social   responsibility  for  degen- 
erate-workmen beggars,  179 

Soldiers'    homes    and    pensions, 
125,  127 


INDEX 


Solitary  confinement,  desire  for, 

93 

South  Clark  St.,  Chicago,  323 
Southern  criminal  beggar,  story 

of,  170 
Spitting,  323 
Spokane,  Wash.,  72 
Sprees  of  tramping,  221 
Spring  fever,  257 
Springfield,  111.,  197 
Starvation,  95,  96 
State  institutions  needed,  list  of, 

236 
laws  as  to  dependents,  206- 

207 
lodging    house   jurisdiction, 

327-328 

tramp  laws,  235-237 
Steady  work,  150-151 
Stealing     rides,     209-210,    212, 

213 

Stepmother,  245 
Student  tramp,  224 
Study  of  homeless  men,  group,  6 
industrial,  5 
results,  6 

Subjective  necessity,  161,  162 
Subnormal     personal     develop- 
ment, 179-180 
Summer  road  trip,  270 
Syphilis,  37 

lameness  caused  by,  74 
Switzerland,  labor  colonies,  183 


TEENS,  boys'  dangerous  age,  269 

Telegrapher's  paralysis,  47 

Temper,  93 

Thieves,  petty,  169 

Thumb,  result  of  injury  to,  41 


Time  in  city  before  application 

to  bureau,  (Table)  277 
T.  P.,  story  of,  181 
Trades,  boys  in,  247 

seasonal,  7 
Tramp-families,  190 
Tramp  life  a  form  of  mania,  89 
Tramp- women,  190 
Tramp  workmen,  221 
Tramps,  209-238 

ages,  (Table)  216,  217 

antiquity,  i 

arrest  by  railroads,  233-234 

beating  their  way,  209-210, 
212,  213 

begging,  223 

beginnings,  211-214 

boy,  181 

caricatures,  222 

casual  labor,  224 

causes,  2,  3,  5,  334 

Chicago,  8,  9 

college  men,  217 

conjugal  condition,   (Table) 
216 

continual    wanderers,    218- 

220 

criminals,  229 
crippling  of,  218 
definition,  209-21 1 
degenerate  workmen,  217 
destructiveness  on  railroads, 

233 

difficulty  of  disposing  of,  234 
distinguishing  mark,  215 
educated,  224 
education,  217 
expense  to  railroads,  232-233 
false  stories  of,  72-74 
federal  law,  235 


372 


INDEX 


Tramps,  general  data,  (Table)  216 
grouped  by  habits  of  wander- 
ing, 218 
how  homeless  men  become, 

21 1,  214 
idle,  224 
incomes,  223 
kind  of  work,  244 
law,  2,  3 
mental       condition,       218, 

(Table)  304 

nativity,  (Table)  216,  217 
number  in  America,  214 
number  killed  on  railroads, 

214,215 
paid  for,  190 
peddling,  224 
pensioners,  223 
periodical,  221-222 
physical  condition,  218 
physical  and  mental  condi- 
tion, (Table)  304 
problem,  215-216,  235,  238 
proportion,  216-217 
proportion  of  boys,  271 
public  opinion,  237-238 
railroads  and,  209-210 
reasons    for   leaving   home, 

225-231 

recent  increase,  2 
remittance  men,  223 
seasonal  laborers,  217 
seasonal  wanderers,  220-22 1 
self-support     among,      190, 
(Table)  216,  222-223,  224 
state  dealings  with,  235-237 
verification  of  stories,  (Table) 

216 

westward   route   from   Chi- 
cago, 330 


Transportation,  charitable,  189- 

190,  194   i  is 
code,  208 
evils  of,  195-208 
federal  law,  207 
public  readiness  to  contri- 
bute to,  203 
requests  for,  189 
state  laws,  206-207 
to  home  or  friends,  53,  54 
to    home,    story    of   young 

workmen,  54-56 
Transportation     committee     of 

the  National  Conference,  208 
Travel  for  boys,  269 
Trespassers  killed  on  railroads, 

number,  214,  215 
Truth    and    falsehood   in   state- 
ments of  homeless  men,  pro- 
portion, 24,  25 
Truth,  partial,  27,  28 
Tuberculosis,  37-39,  45,  4^ 
alleged  victims,  70 
among     Minneapolis    men, 

332 
source  of  cases  received  at 

Dunning,  323 

Tuberculous  applicants,  325 
Tuberculous  men,  by  age  groups, 

(Table)  280 
Tuberculous  strangers  in  Chicago, 

325 

Tuberculous  wanderers,  230 
Turning  out  well,  boys,  263 


UNDER-NOURISHMENT,  91 
Unemployment,    underlying 
causes,  151,  153-154 


373 


INDEX 


Unguarded  railroads  as  a  cause 

of  tramps,  231,  270,  272 
United  Charities  of  Chicago,  14 
University  of  Chicago,  224 


VAGRANCY,  antiquity,  i 

as  a  cause  of  crippling  acci- 
dents, 51 
causes,  2,  3,  5 
causes  among  cripples,  53 
Chicago,  8-9 
disease  and,  41-43 
law,  2,  3 

law  of  Massachusetts,  236 
limitation    of    the    present 

work,  12 

recent  increase,  2 
saving  from,  53,  54,  57-     See 

also  Tramps. 
"Vagrancy  in  the  United  States," 

citation  from,  215 
Venereal  diseases,  37,  45,  46,  328- 

329 
Ventilation    of    lodging    houses, 

316,  31? 

Vice,  results,  46,  47 
Virginia  boy,  197 


WANDERERS,     confirmed.       See 

Tramps;   Vagrancy. 
Wandering,  characteristic  mark 

of  the  tramp,  215 
continual,  218-220 
different  habits  of,  218 


Wandering,  mania  for,  219 
periodical,  221-222 
seasonal,  220-221 
See     also     Leaving     Home; 
Tramps;   Vagrancy. 

Wanderlust,  221,  225,  257 

Washington,  237 

Western  businesses  in  financial 
crises,  135 

Western   Passenger  Association, 
16 

Widowers,  24,  229 

Wilhite,  Dr.  O.  C.,  xiv 

Winter     employment     for     the 
unskilled,  8 

Wisconsin,  94 

Wives,  death  of,  24 

Women,  aged,  126 

entanglements  with,  226 
tramps,  190 

Work    injuries.     See    Industrial 
Accidents. 

Work,  refining,  141-144 

Workman  struck  by  train,  story 
of,  54-56 

Work-references,  28 

Worry,  91,  100 

Worthy    and    unworthy    appli- 
cants, 66 

Wrecking  buildings,  7,  8 


YEGGMEN,  9 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, 272 


374 


OUR     SLAVIC 
FELLOW  CITIZENS 

By  EMILY  GREENE  BALCH 
Associate  Professor  of  Economics  at  Wellesley  College 

FKW  recent  books  of  serious   purpose  have    111:1  • 
great    an    impression  on  the    reviewers.     The  New 
York   Sun,  widely  known  for  its  critical  discrimination, 
devoted  over  five  columns  to  a  review. 

"  Miss  Balch,"  said  the  Sun,  "is  richly  gifted  with  tin- 
qualities  and  training  demanded  for  the  complicated  and 
important  task  which  she  has  accomplished  in  this  volume. 
The  literary  charm,  the  well-balanced  proportion  of  fact, 
description  and  analysis  (both  intellectual  and  moral),  and 
the  remarkable  self-restraint  and  fairmindedness  which 
she  exhibits,  raise  her  work  above  the  level  of  mere 
sociological  investigation,  and  establish  it  in  the  category 
of  books  which  the  ordinary  reader  should  not  pass  by." 
The  London  Spectator,  one  of  the  leading  literary 
journals  of  England,  gave  it  over  a  page  review,  finding 
it  "  a  remarkable  example  of  the  thoroughness  with  which 
the  work  of  economic  investigation  is  carried  on  in  the 
United  States."  The  review  sums  up  with  this  sentence: 
"We  can  warmly  recommend  Our  Slavic  Fellow  Citizens 
to  every  one  who  is  interested  either  in  the  future  of  the 
Slavs,  with  which  the  future  of  Europe  promises  to  be 
more  and  more  bound  up,  or  in  the  conditions  and  pros- 
pects of  European  immigrants  in  the  New  World." 

FROM  OTHER   REVIEWERS 

An  important  contribution  to  the  literature  of  immigration. 
— Boston  "  Transcript." 

Miss  Balch  has  been  studying  this  question  for  years  and  her 
work  is  regarded  as  a  very  important  achievement. — "  Review  of 
Reviews." 

Miss  Balch  has  given  us  one  of  the  most  valuable  books  on 
immigration  that  we  know  of,  a  work  full  of  guidance, of  truth,  of 
understanding.— Chicago  "  Record-Herald." 

Prof.  Balch  may  well  dispute  with  Miss  Tarbell  for  the  Ameri- 
can laurel  due  womanhood  for  patient  investigation  and  consum- 
mate skill  in  marshalling  her  accumulations.— Pittsburgh  "  Post." 

Prof.  Balch  brought  to  her  task  an  insight  into  the  history,  the 
grouping  and  the  race  psychology  of  these  people  which  made  one 
believe  that  she  was  a  Slav  herself.  .  .  .  T<.  this  she  adds  a 
statistician's  eye  for  detail,  a  socialist's  discernment  of  causes  and 
the  facile  pen  of  a  ready  writer.— Prof.  Edward  A.  Steiner  in 
"  The  Survey." 

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